It is still an open question whether increasing life expectancy as such causes higher health care expenditures (HCE) in a population. According to the “red herring” hypothesis, the positive correlation between age and HCE is exclusively due to the fact that mortality rises with age and a...

This editorial presents a critical review of the health model pioneered by Michael Grossman (MGM) in 1972 [<CitationRef CitationID="CR8">8</CitationRef>]. It argues that whereas the MGM has great charm for economists, it fails to achieve acceptance by interested laypersons and policy makers. The main reasons for this failure are: (1) the...</citationref>

Managed care (MC) imposes restrictions on physician behavior, but also holds promises, especially in terms of cost savings and improvements in treatment quality. This contribution reports on private-practice physicians’ willingness to accept (WTA, compensation asked, respectively) for several...