Health Insurance, Second Edition

Instructor Resources: PowerPoint slides, guides to the in-book discussion questions, links to healthcare reform updates, and a transition guide to the new edition.

Rather than focus on the day-to-day operations of insurers, Health Insurance looks in from the outside and explains the role that private health insurance plays in the United States. Noted health economist Michael Morrisey presents a rigorous but intuitive examination of the issues raised by insurance and how the market and the government have dealt with these issues. His emphasis is on understanding the underlying problems from an economics perspective and then applying the empirical literature to provide insight into the impact and effectiveness of the solutions. As such, this book serves as a basis for understanding and predicting the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). This updated edition includes new chapters covering the ACA and the structure, conduct, and performance of the insurance market. Additional resources in each chapter include recent research articles and classic insurance papers that give readers further information on each topic.

Topics covered include:

The effect of the 2008 recession on insurance coverage Health savings accounts and consumer-directed health plans Adverse selection The predictive power of risk adjustment Moral hazard Selective contracting and market power Employer-sponsored health insurance Medicare and Medicaid

"I believe that Health Insurance is an outstanding first textbook in this subject area and represents what must be the best one-volume summary of empirical research on health insurance available anywhere."
Curtis Florence, PhD., Adjunct Associate Professor, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

Michael A. Morrisey, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where he has taught health insurance for more than 25 years. He is the director of the UAB Lister Hill Center for Health Policy and holds appointments in several other UAB departments and centers. He is a fellow of the Employee Benefits Research Institute. Dr. Morrisey was the first recipient of the John Thompson Prize for health services research, awarded by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, and he has served on the editorial boards of several journals, including Health Affairs and Medical Care Research and Review. He is a recipient of the UAB President’s Award for teaching and the UAB School of Public Health Distinguished Investigator Award. He holds a BA in economics from Northern State University in South Dakota and a PhD in economics from the University of Washington (Seattle).