Thanks, Paul. This is very helpful. The only empirical
study of behavior and health costs that I am aware of
is from a real-life experiment in which a Fortune 500
firm substantially increased co-pays for drugs and found
that people with chronic conditions high cholesterol,
blood pressure,
Well, one more try
Today's WSJ has a piece on health savings accounts which
states, repeating a claim made frequently about such
accounts: Implemented correctly, they hold out the
possiblility of putting the brakes on health care costs
by giving patients more of a stake in the experience of
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To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 9:56 PM
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Health Economics Question
Ellen, I am not a health economist, but the idea is that people waste $$$
by visiting
doctors unnecessarily and do things that undermine their health -- e.g.
drinking,
smoking
None that I know of, though The New York Times of October 13, 2004 had
an article on medical savings accounts (see Milton Freudenheim, Bush
Savings Accounts Slow to Gain Acceptance.) It suggests that spending
more out of pocket might push consumers to select cheaper drugs and take
a more active
Ellen,
There was a suggestion (if I remember correctly) in Alberta to
introduce health savings accounts as an attempt to curb health spending
but it was deemed to be counter to the Canada Health Act which would
result in the province being cut off from federal funding so it was
dropped. It was
