The Economics of US Health Care Policy

Exploring the US health care system, this book sets out the case for its reform. Phelps and Parente trace the foundations for today’s system. They show how distortions in the incentives facing participants in the health care market could be corrected in order to achieve lower costs, higher quality of care, more patient safety, and more efficient use of scarce health care resources. This book proposes fundamental changes in the US health care system. These include: changes to US tax law regarding employer paid health insurance; a series of alterations in the structure of Medicare and Medicaid; an improvement to chronic disease care and electronic health records.

In this book, Phelps and Parente explore the US health care system and set out the case for its reform. They trace the foundations of today’s system, and show how distortions in the incentives facing participants in the health care market could be corrected in order to achieve lower costs, a higher quality of care, a higher level of patient safety, and a more efficient allocation of health care resources.

Phelps and Parente propose novel yet economically robust changes to US tax law affecting health insurance coverage and related issues. They also discuss a series of specific improvements to Medicare and Medicaid, and assess potential innovations that affect all of health care, including chronic disease management, fraud and abuse detection, information technology, and other key issues.

The Economics of US Health Care Policy will be illuminating reading for anyone with an interest in health policy, and will be a valuable supplementary text for courses in health economics and health policy, including for students without advanced training in economics.