Can varying co-payment rates by risk reduce cost and improve health outcomes?

A RAND study published in the American Journal of Managed Care (“Varying Pharmacy Benefits With Clinical Status: The Case of Cholesterol-lowering Therapy“) claims that managed care administrators may be able to vary pharmaceutical co-payment amounts by risk group in order to reduce cost and improve health outcomes.  Thus study looks at Cholesterol-Lowering pharmaceuticals.  Co-payments are…

State of the Union

In the State of the Union address, President Bush dedicated portions of the speech to the health care problems facing the United States.  A summary of his proposals is located on the White House website.  I will comment on a few noteworthy additions to the Bush plan, of which I was not aware of during my…

“Health Care Tax Policy” paper by Health Care Economist

In the United States today, many employees receive compensation in the form of health insurance in addition to pecuniary remuneration. Health insurance, however, is tax deductible when it is received from an individual’s employer while wages are not. A Health Affairs report shows that this tax expenditure from excluding health insurance from the federal income…