The Complexities of Comparing Medicare Choices
Whether private Medicare Advantage plans are more or less expensive than traditional fee-for-service Medicare depends on how you do your sums, an economist writes.
View ArticleComparing the Quality of Care in Medicare Options
While anecdotal evidence delivers a mixed verdict, the likelihood is that Medicare Advantage plans outperform traditional Medicare, an economist writes.
View ArticleReader Response: Medicare Options and Quality of Care
A new study makes it even more difficult to draw firm conclusions on whether Medicare Advantage patients get better or worse care than those with traditional Medicare.
View ArticleMeasuring the ‘Quality’ of Health Care
Measuring the quality of health care is possible, though the mix of variables is complex and the results not widely disseminated, an economist writes.
View ArticleThe Incomes of Physicians
The new health care law may help drive down some costs, but it is unlikely to have significant impact on physicians' incomes, an economist writes.
View ArticleOlder Workers Could Benefit if Companies Drop Insurance
If employers are no longer on the hook for the health insurance costs of their employees, older job candidates — who consume more health care — may start to look more attractive.
View ArticleHealth Care Aside, Fewer Jobs Than in 2000
Without employment in the health care sector, which has added more jobs than any other sector, the United States would have fewer jobs than it did in 2000.
View ArticleIn Massachusetts We Trust
Many people look to the Massachusetts health care law as a model of what the nation's Affordable Care Act may bring, but the impact on labor markets reflects very different approaches, an economist...
View ArticleShocked, Shocked, Over Hospital Bills
It should not be impossible to restrain hospitals from charging so much, but few attempts have been made, an economist writes.
View ArticleHealth Reform, the Reward to Work and Massachusetts
Even if health care reform in Massachusetts has had a limited effect on employment, the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the national labor market is likely to be large, an economist writes.
View ArticleForgiveness Formulas
Forms of debt forgiveness can make collection more efficient but run the risk of debtors' gaming the system, an economist writes.
View ArticleU.S. Health Care Prices Are the Elephant in the Room
Until voters demand transparent and equitable pricing, it will be hard for the United States to control health care spending, an economist writes.
View ArticleSmall Companies and the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act may benefit medium-size companies by making it costly for their smaller competitors to expand, an economist writes.
View ArticleThe Bad Economy Behind the Health Care Slowdown
A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation helps sort out how much of the recent moderation in health care costs is related to causes other than the economy.
View ArticleHammurabi’s Code and U.S. Health Care
If society values doctors' treatment of the rich and the poor equally, it should look at equity in the fees they receive for different patients, an economist writes.
View ArticleHealth Coverage Worthy of a Senator
A provision forcing members of Congress to get their health insurance under the exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act may prompt them to make such coverage too attractive, and ultimately weaken...
View ArticleWhat the Oregon Health Study Can’t Tell
A landmark study of the health and care of Medicaid patients provides some striking findings, but the longer-term conclusions that can be drawn are limited.
View ArticlePatterns of Changes in Health Insurance
Well-paid employees are likely to retain their employer-provided health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and lower-paid employees are likely to be shifted to insurance exchanges, an economist...
View ArticleMassachusetts Employees Will Keep Their Health Plans
Because the state's employees are relatively highly paid, the impact of Massachusetts' health care reform is likely to be different than that of the Affordable Care Act, an economist writes.
View ArticleAffordable Care Act Could Be Good for Entrepreneurship
The health care law is expected to produce a sharp increase in self-employment next year because of access to insurance on the individual market, according to a new report.
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