Pricing the Priceless: A Health Care Conundrum (Walras-Pareto Lectures) (Walras-Pareto Lectures Series) - Hardcover

Newhouse, Joseph P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262140799 ISBN 13: 9780262140799

Publisher: Mit Pr, 2002

Synopsis

Winner of the 2003 Certificate of Excellence presented by the TIAA-CREF Institute

The health care industry differs from most other industries in that medical pricing is primarily administered by the government and private insurers and in that it uses several types of contracts. Providers may receive a fixed sum for all necessary services within a given period of time, for the necessary services to treat a given condition, or for each specific service. The industry is changing dramatically, offering many natural experiments to aid understanding of the economics of pricing for health care.

In Pricing the Priceless, Joseph Newhouse explains the different pricing systems and how they affect resource allocation and efficiency, focusing on the efficiency of pricing. He also discusses larger issues of equity, fair distribution of burden, and social justice. Although most of the examples are American-based, the same issues arise in all medical care financing and delivery systems, and the theories and models are general enough to apply to many institutional contexts. The topics include Medicare, managed care, the contemporary integration of health insurance and medical care, the management of moral hazard and stinting, uncertainty and risk aversion, the demand for health insurance, agency relationships, information disparities, regulation, and supply-side and demand-side selection.

About this title

About the Author:

Joseph P. Newhouse is John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University and Director of the Division of Health Policy Research and Education. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Health Economics.

Review:

"The book is well crafted and comprehensive...an excellent overview of health care financing..."
— Teresa M. Waters, Nature Medicine

About this edition

• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0262140799
• ISBN 13: 9780262140799
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248