The future of disability in America will depend on how well the US prepares for and
manages the demographic, fiscal, and technological developments that will unfold during …

This chapter summarizes the many aspects of public policy for health care. I first consider
government policy affecting individual behaviors. Government intervention to change …

Who pays the healthcare costs associated with obesity? Among workers, this is largely a
question of the incidence of the costs of employer-sponsored coverage. Using data from the …

Premiums in health insurance markets frequently do not reflect individual differences in
costs, either because consumers have private information or because prices are not risk …

The health economics literature contains two models of selection, one with endogenous
plan characteristics to attract good risks and one with fixed plan characteristics; neither …

Context: Twenty‐five years ago, private insurance plans were introduced into the Medicare
program with the stated dual aims of (1) giving beneficiaries a choice of health insurance …

Adult obesity is a growing problem. From 1962 to 2006, obesity prevalence nearly tripled to
35.1 percent of adults. The rising prevalence of obesity is not limited to a particular …

The health care industry differs from most other industries in that medical pricing is primarily
administered by the government and private insurers and in that it uses several types of …

If rational individuals pay the full costs of their decisions about food intake and exercise,
economists, policy makers, and public health officials should treat the obesity epidemic as a …

Reform proposals of health care systems in several countries have advocated variations of a
risk adjustment/capitation system. These proposals face a serious objection: incentives to …