Health Economics

by Phelps, Charles E.

• ISBN13: 9780321068989
• ISBN10: 032106898X
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-01
• Publisher: Addison Wesley

Summary

In this market-leading text, Phelps combines current economic thinking and research in health economics with real health policy problems. New to the heavily revised Third Edition is a chapter on Managed Care and additional coverage of pharmaceutical industries, as well as an appendix for review of the Math and Microeconomics concepts used in the book. The early chapters of Health Economics develop essential methodological foundations supported by recent empirical studies. Later chapters focus on major policy areas, such as the structure and effects of Medicare reform, competition and regulation in health care, and international comparisons of health care systems, building on the conceptual material developed earlier in the book.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Why Health Economics?	1	(27)
Important (If Not Unique) Aspects of Health Care Economics	2	(7)
How to Think About Health and Health Care (or... How Health Economics?)	9	(3)
The Production of Health	12	(5)
Health Through the Life Cycle	17	(1)
Lifestyle and Health	18	(6)
Summary	24	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	25	(1)
Problems	26	(1)
Appendix to Chapter 1: A Formal Model of Utility Maximization	27	(1)
An Overview of How Markets Interrelate in Medical Care and Health Insurance	28	(31)
Medical Care Markets with Fixed Technology	29	(10)
Dynamic Issues-Changes Through Time	39	(18)
Summary	57	(1)
Related Chapter in Handbook of Health Economics	58	(1)
Problems	58	(1)
The Transformation of Medical Care to Health	59	(41)
The Productivity of Medical Care	59	(16)
Confusion about the Production Function: A Policy Dilemma	75	(12)
Physician-specific Variations (Medical Practice Styles)	87	(4)
Extensive and Intensive Margin Differences: Are They Similar?	91	(1)
The Ultimate Production Function: Health Produces Utility	92	(2)
Summary	94	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	95	(1)
Problems	95	(2)
Appendix to Chapter 3: Marginal, Average, and Total Productivity	97	(3)
The Demand for Medical Care: Conceptual Framework	100	(36)
Indifference Curves for Health and Other Goods	101	(6)
From Indifference Curves to Demand Curves	107	(2)
How Demand Curves Depend on Illness Events	109	(1)
Demand Curves for Many Medical Services	110	(1)
The Demand Curve for a Society: Adding Up Individual Demands	111	(1)
Using the Demand Curve to Measure Value of Care	112	(2)
How Insurance Affects a Demand Curve for Medical Care	114	(12)
Time Costs and Travel Costs	126	(1)
The Role of Quality in the Demand for Care	127	(4)
Revisiting the Price Index for Health Care	131	(1)
Summary	132	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	132	(1)
Problems	132	(2)
Appendix to Chapter 4: Demand Curves and Demand Elasticities	134	(2)
Empirical Studies of Medical Care Demand and Applications	136	(42)
Studies of Demand Curves	137	(12)
Effects of Age and Gender on Demand	149	(1)
The Effects of Illness on Demand	150	(1)
Lifestyle and Its Effects on Demand	150	(4)
The Demand for Quality: Choice of Provider Specialization	154	(1)
Other Studies of Demand for Medical Care	155	(7)
Applications and Extensions of Demand Theory	162	(5)
Decision Theory: Deriving the ``Right'' Demand Curve for Medical Care	167	(1)
Cost-Effectiveness Ratios and Demand Curves	167	(1)
Why Variations in Medical Practice?	168	(1)
Summary	169	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	170	(1)
Problems	170	(2)
Appendix to Chapter 5: An Example of Medical Decision Theory	172	(6)
The Physician	178	(31)
The ``Firm''-Inputs, Output, and Cost	179	(1)
The Physician as Entrepreneur	180	(1)
The Physician-Firm and Its Production Function	180	(7)
Nonphysician Primary-Care Providers	187	(1)
The Size of the Firm-Group Practice of Medicine	188	(6)
The Physician as Labor	194	(9)
The Aggregate Supply Curve: Entry and Exit	203	(1)
The Open Economy: United States- and Internationally Trained Physicians	203	(2)
Summary	205	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	205	(1)
Problems	205	(2)
Appendix to Chapter 6: Cost Passthrough	207	(2)
Physicians in the Marketplace	209	(41)
Physician Location Decisions	210	(8)
Consumer Search and Market Equilibrium	218	(10)
Actual Search by Patients	228	(3)
Advertising and the Costs of Information	231	(3)
The Role of Licensure	234	(2)
Estimates of the Demand Curve Facing Physician-Firms	236	(1)
Induced Demand	237	(8)
The Role of Payment Schemes	245	(3)
Summary	248	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	248	(1)
Problems	249	(1)
The Hospital as a Supplier of Medical Care	250	(32)
The Hospital Organization	250	(6)
Who Is the Residual Claimant?	256	(4)
Where Does the Utility Function Come From? A Political Theory Model	260	(7)
Hospital Costs	267	(4)
Long-Run versus Short-Run Costs	271	(1)
The Hospital's ``Cost Curve''	272	(3)
Another Complication: Outpatient Surgery	275	(1)
The Demand Curve Facing a Single Hospital	276	(2)
Revisiting the Utility-Maximizing Hospital Manager	278	(1)
Summary	279	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	280	(1)
Problems	280	(2)
Hospitals in the Marketplace	282	(36)
Hospitals and the Market for Medical Staff	283	(2)
Hospitals and Patients	285	(3)
A Model of Equilibrium Quality and Price	288	(4)
Insurance and Competition in the Hospital's Decision	292	(3)
How Doctors and Hospitals Interact: ``Goodies'' for the Doctor	295	(1)
How Doctors and Hospitals Interact: Patients for the Hospital	296	(1)
Competition-``Old Style'' Versus ``New Style''	297	(3)
Entry and Exit: The Pivotal Role of For-Profit Hospitals	300	(1)
The Hospital in Labor Markets	301	(7)
Nursing ``Shortages''	308	(3)
Summary	311	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	312	(1)
Problems	312	(2)
Appendix to Chapter 9:The Hospital's Quality and Quantity Decision	314	(4)
Health Insurance	318	(48)
The Demand for Health Insurance	319	(5)
Choosing the Insurance Policy	324	(7)
The Supply of Insurance	331	(3)
Is the Insurance Market Stable? The Question of Self-Selection	334	(10)
Insurance Purchases Through Time	344	(1)
How Income Taxes Subsidize Health Insurance	344	(8)
Empirical Estimates of Demand for Insurance	352	(2)
The Overall Effect of the Tax Subsidy on the Health Sector	354	(1)
``Optimal'' Insurance	355	(1)
Other Models of Demand for Insurance	356	(1)
Summary	356	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	357	(1)
Problems	357	(5)
Appendixes to Chapter 10	362	(4)
Detailed Calculation of Welfare Loss	362	(1)
The Calculus of the Risk/Moral Hazard Tradeoff	363	(1)
The Statistics of an Insurance Pool	364	(2)
Managed Care	366	(31)
Why Managed Care	368	(3)
Types of Interventions	371	(14)
Integrated Delivery: The Next Phase of Managed Care?	385	(3)
Long-Run Issues	388	(7)
Summary	395	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	395	(1)
Problems	395	(2)
Government Provision of Health Insurance: Medicare and Its Revisions	397	(35)
The Medicare Program	398	(3)
Economic Consequences of Medicare's Structure	401	(4)
Changes in Medicare	405	(24)
Summary	429	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	430	(1)
Problems	430	(2)
Medical Malpractice	432	(33)
Background on the Legal System in the United States	432	(7)
The Economic Logic of Negligence Law	439	(3)
Judicial Error, Defensive Medicine, and ``Tough Guys''	442	(3)
Medical Malpractice Insurance	445	(1)
Evidence on Actual Deterrence	445	(12)
Malpractice Awards: ``Lightning'' or a ``Broom Sweeping Clean''?	457	(1)
Tort Reform	458	(3)
Tort Reform Writ Large	461	(1)
HMO Liability: A New Domain for Malpractice Law	462	(1)
Summary	463	(1)
Related Chapter in Handbook of Health Economics	464	(1)
Problems	464	(1)
Externalities in Health and Medical Care	465	(33)
Externalities, Property Rights, and the Control of Externalities	466	(1)
Externalities of Contagion	467	(7)
Health-Affecting Externalities: The Example of Alcohol	474	(6)
Externalities from Tobacco	480	(4)
``Financial'' Externalities-Transfers Between People	484	(1)
Information as an Externality	485	(3)
Research as an Externality	488	(2)
Transfusion-Induced AIDS and Hepatitis	490	(4)
Summary	494	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	494	(1)
Problems	494	(2)
Appendix to Chapter 14: Value of Life	496	(2)
Managing the Market: Regulation and Technical Change in Health Care	498	(49)
A Taxonomy of Regulation	499	(1)
Licensure	500	(6)
``Certificate of Need'' (CON) Laws	506	(8)
Price Controls	514	(7)
Drugs and Devices: The New Wave of Medical Care	521	(22)
Summary	543	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	544	(1)
Problems	545	(2)
Universal Insurance Issues and International Comparisons of Health Care Systems	547	(38)
General Considerations for a National Health Policy	550	(7)
Review of Health Policy and Systems in Selected Countries	557	(1)
Snapshots of Four Countries	558	(11)
Aggregate International Comparisons	569	(9)
Growth in Costs and Health Outcomes	578	(5)
A Final Conundrum	583	(1)
Summary	583	(1)
Related Chapters in Handbook of Health Economics	584	(1)
Problems	584	(1)
Author's Postscript	585	(2)
Appendix: Introduction to Basic Economics Concepts	587	(24)
Answers to Selected Problems	611	(14)
Bibliography	625	(26)
Acknowledgments	651	(2)
Index	653