GOOD HEALTH IS A CRUCIAL PART OF WELL-BEING BUT SPENDING ON HEALTH CAN BE JUSTIFIED ON ECONOMIC GROUNDS. THE GOAL OF REDUCING POVERTY PROVIDES A DIFFERENT BUT EQUALLY POWERFUL CASE FOR HEALTH INVESTMENTS. HOWEVER, IF POLICYMAKERS ARE TO ACCELERATE THE SUBSTANTIAL HEALTH GAINS OF RECENT DECADES,...

We examine (a) the effect of market structure on the level of mortality for AMI, hip fracture, and stroke between 2002/3 and 2010/11 and (b) whether this effect changed after the introduction of Choice policy in 2006 which gave patients the right to a wider choice of hospital. For AMI and hip...

The strategy currently adopted in France to deal with the ever-growing health expenditures is one of freezing compulsory deductions and broadening the scope of complementary insurance, while at the same time reaffirming that such insurance is optional. But individual freedom to take out...

When public long-term care (LTC) insurance is provided by insurers, they typically lack incentives for purchasing cost-effective LTC. Providing insurers with appropriate incentives for efficiency without jeopardizing access for high-risk individuals requires, among other things, an adequate...

The efficiency of Turkish health system, which was restructured by the health transformation framework, depends on the mutual compliance of both health service providers and demanders. The future and success of the new health system may be determined by solving problems that were generated from...

Patient mobility is a key issue in the EU which recently passed a new law on a patient's right to EU-wide provider choice. In this paper we use a Hotelling model with two regions that differ in technology to study the impact of patient mobility on health care quality, health care financing and...

We estimate an insurer-specific preference function which rationalizes hospital referrals for privately insured births in California. The function is additively separable in: a hospital price paid by the insurer, the distance traveled, and plan- and severity-specific hospital fixed effects...

It is a big challenge to ensure the ambulatory care in economically underdeveloped, rural areas. Some regions of Brandenburg face a shortage of medical care which is primarily caused by the change of generations, the lack of young people and the little existing infrastructure. In these parts of...