Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
How do health care costs vary across the country. Although the team at the Dartmouth Atlas has done this exercise with patients in Medicare, there has been less study of region variation in health care spending among the privately insured with the notable exception of a 2013 Institute of Medicine report. In a study by…
In many countries with universal public health insurance, the government also provides subsidies for private insurance. Examples of this practice include Australia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Why do they do this? Is it a good idea? There are arguments on both sides. Public subsidies are good. Public subsidies for private insurance can stimulate the…
Is regional variation in health care spending larger for Medicare beneficiaries or those enrolled in private health plans? Before answering that question, one should better understand the sources of this variation. Regional variation in spending can be due to variation in the utilization, variation in prices, or both. A paper by Philipson et al. (2010)…
In Germany, poor and middle class individuals must use public insurance, but well-off Germans can choose between using public and private insurance. “In Germany, about 90% of the population is publicly insured (Colombo & Tapay, 2004). Buying public insurance is mandatory for dependent employees with a regular employment contract as long as their income does…