EC320 Summer 2011 Assignment 8
1. What is moral hazard, as it relates to health care? Relate the idea of flat of the curve care to this. Does any form of health care insurance create a moral hazard? That is, unless you are willing to pay for health care out of your own funds, are you over utilizing health care? If not, then how can we ever know if the health care dollars spent on a patient are justified or not?
2. What informational issues are at work in health care markets? What problems do they create?
3. From Reinhardt’s article, what is ‘social solidarity’ and what does it have to do with health
care? Look at the five basic functions of a health care system that he notes. Compare what you know about the health care system in the US (both private and public) and briefly explain how each 5 work here. Finally, compare the US system to the German system. What is the same and what is different? Finally, look up, on the Web, the most current value for health care as a % of GDP for the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. Who spends the most, who spends the least?
4. What is a single payer health care plan? What parts of the current US health care system looks like a single payer plan?
5. Atul Gawande, in Getting There from Here, makes some interesting points about how a health care system can develop over time. He cautions about ignoring “path dependencies”. What are these? What are some examples he gives about the evolution of health care in the US, England and France? What does he mean when he writes that the US system is more flotilla than ship?
6. Summarize Reinhardt’s article about the US and Canada. It is a bit dated now, but most of the points are still relevant. why does he believe the US won’t ever have a Canadian system?
7. We know the government spends a lot of money. You took a look at this in your 1st assignment. Now you are looking at cost benefit analysis as a tool to aid in deciding what to spend our money on. There is a big debate going on right now over spending and taxes. Here is a blog posting from James Kwak from UC Berkley. He writes a blog called Baseline Scenario with Simon Johnson, formally of the IMF, now at NYU. Kwak is very liberal, so he puts a partisan spin on things, but I found this interesting and wanted your comments. Just what should we be cutting, in our budget, and what is this thing called “Washington”?
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