Quality competition among hospitals, induced by patients freely choosing their hospital in a price regulated market, can only be realized if quality differences between hospitals are transparent, understandable, and thus influence patients' hospital choice. We use data from ~145,000 German...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (“ACA”) requires most Americans to obtain health insurance for themselves and their dependents by 2014. In a recent essay, Professor Douglas Kahn and Professor Jeffrey Kahn take issue with one of several justifications for what has...

In this article, we discuss the public health provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). We first set forth a framework to identify the key reforms that are needed for a robust public health system. These include workforce and infrastructure investments. We then assess...

Critics of the U.S. health care system frequently point to other countries as models for reform. They point out that many countries spend far less on health care than the United States yet seem to enjoy better health outcomes. The United States should follow the lead of those countries, the...

The United States has state of the art technology and world renowned expertise in medical treatment, yet in terms of healthcare it shows a dramatically poor performance in relation to the other industrialized countries. This situation is surprising, since one would expect that a free market...

On October 26, 2012, the University of Akron School of Law’s Center for Intellectual Property and Technology hosted its Sixth Annual IP Scholars Forum. In attendance were thirteen legal scholars with expertise and an interest in IP and public health who met to discuss problems and potential...

OECD countries have used a variety of mechanisms for subsidizing healthcare for more than a century. These include tax preferences, direct subsidies, mandated health insurance programs, government-financed single-payer systems, and direct provision of healthcare services. In most cases,...

OECD countries have used a variety of mechanisms for subsidizing healthcare for more than a century. This paper demonstrates that an electoral model of healthcare policies can explain why various combinations of healthcare programs have been adopted and why they are modified through time. The...

Health systems in Western countries are plagued by inefficiency and will likely require a substantial increase in the tax burden as populations age. Patients might also face a gradual decrease in the quality and scope of services. The organisational changes needed to drive costs down and...