This paper discusses implementation of the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) in Zambia. The planning process of the FNDP integrated views from the Provincial and District Development Plans approved by the respective provincial and district level organs. The FNDP’s goals are...

This paper examines the economic rationale of affordability exemptions in the context of a health insurance mandate. On its face, an affordability exemption makes little sense-- it exempts people from purchasing a good that policymakers believe benefits them. I provide an economic definition of...

Critics of pay or play mandates, borrowing from the large empirical minimum wage literature, provide evidence that they reduce employment. Borrowing from a smaller empirical minimum wage literature, we provide evidence that they also are a blunt instrument for funding health insurance for the...

Medical care at the end of life, which is often is estimated to contribute up to a quarter of US health care spending, often encounters skepticism from payers and policy makers who question its high cost and often minimal health benefits. It seems generally agreed upon that medical resources are...

This paper analyses a recent proposal of the Australian Government to reform the existing Medicare system. It develops models of the physician’s behaviour and of a household’s demand for medical insurance under the proposed system, and then proceeds to characterise the equilibrium under the...

One of the mechanisms that is implemented in the cost containment wave in the health-care sectors in western countries is the definition, by the third-party payer, of a set of preferred providers. The insured patients have different access rules to such providers when ill. The rules specify the...

Extending choice in health care is currently popular amongst English, and other, politicians. Those promoting choice make an appeal to a simple economic argument. Competitive pressure helps make private firms more efficient and consumer choice acts as a major driver for efficiency. Giving...

The determinants of the dramatically rising expenditures on health care in general, and on hospital care in particular, have been of prior concern to policy and to research. Using a rich panel data set this paper contributes to this literature by investigating factors determining the demand for...

There are many social situations in which the actions of different agents reinforce each other. These include network effects and the threshold models used by sociologists (Granovetter, Watts) as well as Leibenstein's "bandwagon effects." We model such situations as a game with increasing...

This Selected Issues paper reviews the status and potential impacts of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. It draws on demographic projections and economic studies, and summarizes the official policy response and actions taken by the nongovernmental and business communities. It presents some stylized...