The paper provides an analysis of the determinants of health spending differentials among the Italian Regions for the years 1998-2010. An original standardised spending framework is proposed that takes into account the appropriateness of the services provided and price/technical efficiency, as...

This article investigates the impact on the U.S. economy of making health care more affordable. We compare health care cost reductions with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) using a rich life cycle general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents. We evaluate a wide range...

This paper examines the question of whether wealthy middle-class families are sheltering large sums of money in abusive financial arrangements in order to qualify for Medicaid benefits for nursing home patients, possibly endangering the fiscal integrity of the program. This paper argues that the...

A high level of public services in housing, transport, education and health care is essential for liveability in urban centres, as shown in this report, with the help of European data for large cities. Inhabitants of larger cities, where the housing market is heavily commercialised in terms of...

About one in every two smokers dies from smoking-related causes every year. In response to this, over the past four decades, numerous countries have introduced successful tobacco control policies. Despite this, smoking persists, especially among more disadvantaged social groups. The relatively...

Mental illness is a leading cause of disability worldwide with vast costs to society. Yet, insurance coverage for effective treatments remains limited. This paper revisits the Offset Hypothesis, which claims insurance coverage for psychotherapy is self-financing through reductions in the use of...

Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health and nutrition is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of the Nutrition Improvement Program (NIP), a large-scale school meal program in rural China, on the health and nutritional status of...

This paper investigates challenges of aging for long-term care. Our analysis proceeds in three steps. In the first step, we estimate the prospective care demand for 30 developed countries based on projected aging and disabilities among the elderly. In the second step, we outline challenges for...

This article explores the role of the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cash benefit programs in providing access to public health insurance coverage among working-aged people with disabilities, using a sample of administrative records spanning 84...

Costa Rica's health policy has been widely recognized for its favorable outcomes at relatively low costs. While the general characteristics and outcome of its universal health care system have been described previously, in-depth analyses of the health policy process are scarce. This study, that...