Suppose that Dmitri, an economist from a research institute in Texas, and Frances, an economist from a university in Massachusetts, are arguing over health Insurance. The following dialogue shows an excerpt from their debate: Frances: A popular topic for debate among politicians as well as economists is the idea of providing government assistance for health benefits. Dmitri: I think it is oppressive for the government to tax people who take care of themselves in order to pay for health insurance for those who are obese. Frances: I disagree. I think government funding of health insurance is useful to ensure basic fairness. The disagreement between these economists is most likely due to Despite their differences, with which proposition are two economists chosen at random most likely to agree? Employers should not be restricted from outsourcing work to foreign nations. Business managers can raise profit more easily by reducing costs than by raising revenue. O Central banks should focus more on maintaining low unemployment than on maintaining low inflation.

Suppose that Hubert, an economist from an AM talk radio program, and Kate, an economist from a school of industrial relations, are arguing over health insurance. The following dialogue shows an excerpt from their debate: Kate: A popular topic for debate among politicians as well as economists is the idea of providing government assistance for health benefits. Hubert: I think it is oppressive for the government to tax people who take care of themselves in order to pay for health insurance for those who are obese. Kate: I disagree. I think government funding of health insurance is useful to ensure basic fairness.   The disagreement between these economists is most likely due to (DIFFERENCE IN SCIENTIFIC JUDGEMENT, DIFFERENCE IN VALUES, DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERCEPTION VERSUS REALITY)   .   Despite their differences, with which proposition are two economists chosen at random most likely to agree? A. Employers should not be restricted from outsourcing work to foreign nations.…

What have been some Economic consequences of a Pandemic?

Demand for medical services is price inelastic (Absolute value of price elasticity of demand is less than 1 and greater than zero). Medical services are different from most other goods and services in that the person who determines the demand (the patient) is not the person who makes the payment (payment is made by the insurance company). How does this affect the price elasticity of demand for medical services (increase it or decrease it)? You may assume that this question only refers to people who have health insurance. Ignore co-payments and deductibles and any other out-of-pocket expenses. Please give an explanation.

In the early 2000s, the state of Massachusetts in the U.S. implemented a health reform aimed at enrolling people without health insurance into an insurance plan. The reform required people without health insurance (at least those who could afford it) to buy insurance, and put in place penalties on those who nevertheless chose not to buy insurance. Below is the abstract of a recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper entitled “Health Reform, Health Insurance, and Selection: Estimating Selection into Health Insurance Using the Massachusetts Health Reform” by Martin Hackmann, Jonathan Kolstad, and Amanda Kowalski. The authors conducted a study of the effects of the Massachusetts reform. They write:   We implement an empirical test for selection into health insurance using changes in coverage induced by the introduction of mandated health insurance in Massachusetts. Our test examines changes in the cost of the newly insured relative to those who were insured prior to the…

If the demand curve is steeper for particular health services the moral hazard is less ? True or false  Explain briefly.

While it may seem intuitively obvious that health expenditures will increase as a population age – older people, after all, are less healthy on average than younger people – in fact, several prominent health economists have argued that it is not ageing per se, but rather some of the correlates of an ageing population that cause health expenditures to rise as population ages. For instance, Getzen (1992) argues that, at least in part, rising health expenditures with an ageing population are due to the higher incomes and resources of the older population; health care is a normal good, so higher incomes lead to higher expenditures. In a similar manner, Zweifel et al. (1999) argue that the real problem with an ageing population, at least as far as health care costs are concerned, is that there will be more people who are within a couple of years of dying. Since health care expenditures rise sharply close to the end of life, it is this, rather than population ageing by itself, that leads to…

The following is the abstract from the paper, "The Impact of Health Insurance on Preventive Care and Health Behaviors: Evidence from the First Two Years of the ACA Medicaid Expansions," by Simon, Soni, Cawley (2017). The U.S. population receives suboptimal levels of preventive care and has a high prevalence of risky health behaviors. One goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to increase preventive care and improve health behaviors by expanding access to health insurance. This paper estimates how the ACA-facilitated state-level expansions of Medicaid in 2014 affected these outcomes. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and a difference-in-differences model that compares states that did and did not expand Medicaid, we examine the impact of the expansions on preventive care (e.g., dental visits, immunizations, mammograms, cancer screenings), risky health behaviors (e.g., smoking, heavy drinking, lack of exercise, obesity), and self-assessed health. We find…

Suppose you have an insurance plan in which you pay the market price for medical care until you meet a deductible of $1,000, after which you have a coinsurance rate of .20. Answer parts a and b assuming your inverse demand curve for medical care is P = 400 – 10Q and the market price for medical care is $200 per unit.a) Graph the price line and your demand curve. On the graph, label the values of the x and y intercepts of the demand curve, the quantity where you meet the deductible, the horizontal sections of the price line, and the point(s) where the demand curve intersects the price line.b) Find the number of units of medical care that you will demand. Show all calculations that youperformed in your analysis.