The course goals:

(1) Provide a detailed description of the institutional features of the health care market and current trends in this rapidly changing field;
(2) Demonstrate the use and usefulness of analyzing the health care market using economic analysis, particularly microeconomics. Compared to other areas of economics, health economics is complicated by a lack of information (about what health services the consumer needs), great uncertainty (hence insurance) and payment through third parties (insurance companies) rather than direct payment by the consumer.

Course Material:

Projections 2005

StoolGuaiac

HW#5

Sources for Aggregate Data

Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA): http://www.hcfa.gov . HCFA is the federal agency that administers the Medicare, Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Programs and is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS): http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww/ . NCHS is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality (AHRQ): http://www.ahcpr.gov/ . AHRQ is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Statistical Abstract of the United States

Published by Bureau of the Census (http://www.census.gov ), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Health United States

Published by National Center for Health Statistics (http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww ), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Cross-Section and Panel Data

National Health Interview Survey is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), beginning 1996

Conducted by the Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

National Medical Expenditure Surveys (NMES) of 1977 and 1987

Conducted by the Agency for Health Care Policy Research (AHCPR).

Rand Health Insurance Study

Major experiment in late 1970's where 7,000 people randomly assigned to different health insurance policies and followed for several years.