Many observers have blamed HMOs for increasing financial pressures on private hospitals and causing them to cut back on the provision of charity care. We examine this issue using data on all hospital discharges in California between 1988 and 1996. We find that public hospitals in counties with...

Several econometric studies have concluded that technical progress embodied in equipment is a major source of manufacturing productivity growth. Other research has suggested that, over the long run, growth in the U.S. economy's 'health output' has been at least as large as the growth in...

This research examines the cost structure of a nationally representative sample of HMOs from 1991-1994 to determine whether cost savings achieved through enrollment growth and age of the plan are shared with any of the factors of production. The data are obtained from Health Care Investment...

A desirable system for providing and financing health care would achieve three goals: (1) preventing the deprivation of care because of a patient's inability to pay; (2) avoiding wasteful spending; and (3) allowing care to reflect the different tastes of individual patients. Although it is not...

The durability of health care treatment, the substantial technical change in health care treatment, and the prevalence of third-party payment interact to create substantial difficulty in measuring the price and output of health care. This paper provides a framework for analyzing the demand for...

The paper examines price discounting by health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations in markets for hospital services. Our empirical analysis focuses on transaction prices for angioplasty, which is a relatively common procedure, with well defined 'product'...

Poor and uneducated patients may not know what health care is desirable and, if fully insured, have little incentive to minimize the costs of their care. Partly in response to these concerns, most states have moved a substantial portion of their Medicaid caseloads out of traditional competitive...

Numerous recent studies have indicated that interactions with a tax-distorted labor market increase the cost of pollution regulation. However, these studies have made restrictive assumptions regarding individual preferences and have ignored key links between pollution, human health, and labor...

Maryland has simultaneously operated per case - and per service hospital payment systems since 1976 with varying levels of stringency in setting per case rates. Regression analyses of this experience are used to compare the impacts of these systems on admissions, length of stay, and case-mix...

The precautionary motive for saving is an important issue that is receiving increasing attention. Part of the motivation for this interest stems from the post war coincidence of two trends, one a decline in the U.S. rate of saving and the other an increase in insurance of various types,...