Some economists have suggested that the best way to control medical costs is to remove the profit incentive for health care providers, particularly hospitals. This would involve making all hospitals not-for-profit institutions. Use the utility maximization model to explain the likely impact such a policy would have on the cost of producing hospital services. What would happen if instead a policy was instituted that reduced barriers to entry in the hospital sector and therefore made the market more competitive?

The following is an excerpt from "The Oregon Experiment- Effects of Medicaid on Clinical Outcomes," by Baicker et al. (2013). Fill in the blank identifying the method used in this paper given the description in the paragraph (I've given you a hint on the key points by italicizing a few phrases): "Adults randomly selected in the lottery were given the option to apply for Medicaid, but not all persons selected by the lottery enrolled in Medicaid (either because they did not apply or because they were deemed ineligible). Lottery selection increased the probability of Medicaid coverage during our study period by 24.1 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI], 22.3 to 25.9; P<0.001). The subgroup of lottery winners who ultimately enrolled in Medicaid was not comparable to the overall group of persons who did not win the lottery. We, therefore, used a standard______ _approach... to estimate the causal effect of enrollment in Medicaid. Intuitively, since the lottery increased the chance…

The UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) is charged with interpreting the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESR). In 2000 the Committee released General Comment 14, “The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health”. The General Comment is important for advancing our understanding of a right to health under international law because it: (choose one) A) Sets out what has become known as the “3AQ model” addressing the conditions for health on the basis of Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability, and Quality. B) Creates new, specific obligations with respect to the delivery health care services that are binding on all countries of the world C) Makes it clear that the absence of a right to health in the Canadian Charter or Rights and Freedoms means that Canada is in clear violation of its obligations under the ICESR. D) Offers an account of a right to health that has been used by health advocates around the world E) A, B…

Federal law allows workers who leave a job to continue to participate in the health insurance they were receiving through their previous employer. However, they have to pay the full monthly premium (including both the employee and employer portions), as well as a 2 percent administrative fee. This high price has led many people, especially the healthier ones, to drop coverage. Insurance companies report that these plans lose them money.  This phenomenon is an example of: a. Adverse Selection b. Moral Hazard c. Tragedy of the Commons d. Commodity Egalitarianism