The Economics of Health Reconsidered

Hardcover: 341 pages
ISBN 1567931936
978-1567931938
Health Administration Press
November 2002
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"Tom Rice has done all of us in health a favor. In succinct, accessible - at time even delightful - prose, he has expressed so many of our concerns about what sometimes passes for 'conventional' health economics." -- Gavin Mooney, Ph.D., Professor of Health Economics

This book guides you toward reconsidering the field of health economics as it is taught and practiced. It discusses and analyzes the assumptions that must be met for a competitive market to be successful, concludes that these assumptions are not met in the healthcare field, and provides a number of applications for healthcare policy. Among the policy issues addressed are:

Effects of managed care and capitation on patient care
Access to care by the poor
Medical savings accounts
and many more topics

"The goal of the book is to make researchers, policy makers, and students reconsider the role of markets in the health area. It is often believed that economic theory shows markets to be a superior way to organize an economic activity, but this depends on the fulfillment of so many assumptions --- 15 are discussed in the book -- that simply are not met in health sectors. The book does not show which health care activities should rely on markets and which should not -- that is an empirical question that societies continue to grapple with. Rather, the book attempts to convince the reader that there is no reason to believe, based on theory, that markets are a superior way to organize health related activities. When that is established, than a number of potential health care policies that are not consistent with the prescriptions that fall out of a purely competitive model become attractive alternatives. Many of these focus on controlling the supply side of the market." - Thomas Rice, PhD, author of this book

"Tom Rice's The Economics of Health Reconsidered is written for both economists and non-economists. It will challenge the former to reconsider standard economic assumptions as applied to the healthcare system and to reassess whether policy prescriptions should be based on theory without careful empirical tests of the underlying assumptions. It offers non-economists an accessible critique of economic analyses that are divorced from the complexities of the healthcare system and offers guidance in how to use the powerful tools of economics in an appropriate fashion." - Harold S. Luft, Ph.D., Professor of Health Economics, Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco

"With meticulous and far-ranging scholarship, Rice examines the entire battery of assumptions that must be valid and the conditions that must be satisfied before an economist could, in good conscience, declare a so-called 'market-driven' health system superior to alternative arrangements. ... I hope that this book will be widely read and heeded, especially by the next cohorts in our profession." - Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D., James Madison Professor of Political Economy, Princeton University

"Thomas Rice performs an invaluable service in this book-reminding readers that the conditions under which market allocations produce the best possible outcome are demanding and often violated and showing that these conditions are quite unlikely to be satisfied in the production and delivery of healthcare." - Henry J. Aaron, MacLaury Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

Thomas Rice is Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health. Dr. Rice received his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1982. He served on the faculty at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health from 1983 to 1991, when he joined UCLA. Dr. Rice has published widely on issues such as competition and regulation in health care, physicians' economic behavior, cost containment, health insurance, and the Medicare program. In 1988, he received the Association for Health Services Research Young Investigator Award, given to the outstanding health services researcher in the United States age 35 or under. In 1992, he received the Thompson Prize from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, awarded annually to the outstanding health services researcher in the country age 40 or under. Dr. Rice is currently Editor of the journal, Medical Care Research and Review.

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ACHE's publishing division, Health Administration Press, is one of the largest publishers of books and journals on all aspects of health services management. Health Administration Press is a division of the Foundation of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). ACHE is an international professional society of 30,000 healthcare executives who lead our nation's hospitals, healthcare systems, and other healthcare organizations. ACHE is known for its prestigious credentialing and educational programs and its annual Congress on Healthcare Management, which draws more than 4,000 participants each year. ACHE is also known for its groundbreaking research and career development and public policy programs. Through such efforts, ACHE works toward its goal of being the premier professional society for healthcare leaders by providing exceptional value to its members. Founded in 1972 with support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Health Administration Press has grown from a small office on the campus of the University of Michigan to one of the largest publishers of books and journals on all aspects of health services management, including textbooks for use in college and university courses.

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