This paper analyses the Slovak health insurance system and the policy challenges it faces. It describes the structure of health coverage and health sector reforms being implemented by the Slovak government. It provides a preliminary assessment of the possible impact of such reforms, with a focus...

We study the effects of losing insurance on behavioral health - mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) - community hospitalizations. We leverage variation in public insurance eligibility offered by a large-scale Medicaid disenrollment. Losing insurance decreased SUD-related...

This paper examines the tradeoffs of monitoring for wasteful public spending. By penalizing unnecessary spending, monitoring improves the quality of public expenditure and incentivizes firms to invest in compliance technology. I study a large Medicare program that monitored for unnecessary...

Opioid overdose deaths in older adults have increased substantially over the past two decades. This increase has occurred despite the availability of effective treatments. Methadone, one of just three medications approved by the Food & Drug Administration for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment,...

Moral hazard and provider-induced demand may contribute to overutilization of scarce health care resources. The U.S. health care system includes several compensatory cost-containment mechanisms, but their effects depend on how patients and providers respond. We investigate hospice programs'...

Once a humble, beloved, charity-based arm of the healthcare industry, hospice is now a multi-billion dollar industry, funded almost exclusively by Medicare, run by for-profit corporations answering to private equity investors and Wall Street, and more and more frequently plagued by fraud and...

We study the effects of losing insurance on behavioral health – mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) – community hospitalizations. We leverage variation in public insurance eligibility offered by a large-scale Medicaid disenrollment. Losing insurance decreased SUD-related...

There is a widespread impression among Canadians that their health-care system is universal, comprehensive and equitable. Given this impression, Canadians may be surprised to discover that, for instance, while annual physicals and receiving advice on dealing with cold symptoms are covered by the...

Health insurance mandates require health insurers to provide coverage for particular health services or illnesses. This paper examines how various state health insurance mandates influence premiums and enrollment in health insurance plans. Contrary to previous studies that compare premiums...

In keinem neu entstehenden Wirtschaftszweig werden die Chancen und Risiken so kontrovers und gleichzeitig so undifferenziert diskutiert wie in der Gentechnik. Unter diesem Sammel-begriff sind jedoch verschiedene Forschungsansätze wie z.B. das Klonen oder die pränatale Diagnostik zu fassen. Wir...