April 16, 2008
On Monday, the New York Times ran this front page story on private insurers moving more high cost prescriptions onto a “fourth tier” for purposes of insurance reimbursement. Insurers typically sort prescriptions into various tiers on a “formulary” to help steer patients toward lower cost and preferred (from the...
April 10, 2008
The main question to answer in health care policy is what, if anything, should be done to slow cost escalation. Of course, rising costs are not a problem per se. It should not be surprising that a wealthy country would want to devote an ever larger share of its resources to improved health. But it is widely recognized that much spending...
April 4, 2008
Health care policy debates can be frustrating because they seem at times to assume the health sector operates without regard to financial incentives. For instance, proponents of an expanded governmental role in cost control seldom acknowledge the obvious: economic theory, with abundant empirical evidence from around the world backing it...