In the 1990s, insurance companies and employers began to rely on managed care to control costs, and state governments followed suit by adopting managed care in Medicaid programs. To deal with the challenges associated with developing effective state Medicaid managed care programs, the Robert...

Each year, millions of workers in the United States develop a chronic illness, disability, or other serious medical problem. Many are at risk of exiting the labor force, especially if they do not receive timely and effective return-to-work (RTW) supports. These workers and their families...

With the debate over health care dragging on, it is becoming increasingly likely that the Senate will pass a bill through the reconciliation process, requiring just a simple majority rather than the super-majority needed to break a filibuster. This paper shows that if this path is taken,...

Many proponents of conservative fiscal policies talk of the budget deficit as being a matter of intergenerational equality. However, this paper shows the younger generations (and those yet to be born) will contribute more to the deficit than older generations. This analysis uses data from the...

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...

Amongst other things, this report: . provides a statistical overview of the structure of the industry and the activities of the 500 acute care, psychiatric and day hospitals that operate within it; . looks at some indicators of the industry’s financial performance, efficiency and quality of...

In December 2002, the Commission released the proceedings of its August 2002 workshop on Managed Competition. The workshop was organised to provide an opportunity for a more detailed discussion by a group of leading health policy analysts of the proposal by Dr Richard Scotton of a ‘managed...

Proceedings of a conference organised by the Productivity Commission and the Melbourne Institute of Economic and Social Research held on 7-8 March 2002 to explore key policy issues facing Australia's health sector. The Roundtable drew together thirty leading practitioners and analysts on health...