This study examines the effect of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) on the use of health care services among the privately insured non-elderly population. Using data from the 2000 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey, we find that HMO members are not particularly healthier than non-HMO...

In the home-care services industry, caregivers drive to visit patients scattered in a district and deliver various care services at the patient's home. We use a unique data set, with a standard panel structure, recording the hours of service and the exact number of miles traveled by each...

In the home-care services industry, caregivers drive to visit patients scattered in a district and deliver various care services at the patient's home. We use a unique data set, with a standard panel structure, recording the hours of service and the exact number of miles traveled by each...

This chapter summarizes the many aspects of public policy for health care. I first consider government policy affecting individual behaviors. Government intervention to change individual actions such as smoking and drinking is frequently justified on externality grounds. External costs of...

Leading health care reform proposals all require individuals to obtain health care coverage, but differ in how they would require employers to share in the costs of coverage for their employees. This report reviews the employer responsibility requirements in the leading proposals—often...

Leaders in both the House and the Senate have committed to "shared responsibility" as a basic principle of health care reform, meaning that the costs of health care coverage are shared by individuals, businesses, and the public sector. However, as this issue brief documents, the Senate version...

Two of the three leading health care reform proposals being considered by Congress—the House “Tri-Committee” health care reform legislation and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s reform legislation—include sensibly designed “play-or-pay” provisions...

The shift to ambulatory care, initiated in Canada’s health care system in the 1990’s, consists in reducing the length of hospitals stays, delaying institutionalization and promoting home care. However, the supply for health and social support services is flawed in that seniors living in the...

Native American women have suffered years of systematic injustice; the most tyrannical act in modern times may arguably be eugenics' practice through forced sterilization. Despite recent feminist movements and reproductive health reform, Native American women are missing from the conversation. The...