The Lighthouse
Our weekly E-Mail Newsletter
  Subscribe Unsubscribe

Hi Res Cover $24.95 $18.70 (25% off) Paperback 456 pages 6 x 9 inches ISBN 978-0-7658-0676-5 $39.95 $30.00 (25% off) Hardcover 456 pages 6 x 9 inches ISBN 978-1-56000-430-1 Co-publisher: Transaction Publishers 57 Figures © 2000   AMERICAN HEALTH CARE Government, Market Processes and the Public Interest Edited by Roger D. Feldman Foreword by Mark V. Pauly The Clinton health care reform proposals of 1993 represented the most far-reaching program in social engineering attempted in the United States since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.The Clinton plan would have placed almost all Americans under age of sixty-five in large, government-sponsored health insurance purchasing alliances that would have contracted with insurers to offer standard benefits at regulated prices. American Health Care examines why harmful consequences too often follow when government sets out to direct health care.The book examines: • How hospital rate regulation raises hospital prices • “No-fault” medical malpractice increases the occurrence of faulty medicine • FDA regulation is a major cause for escalating cost and delays of new drugs • The special interest genesis of Medicare • Consumer advantages of medical savings accounts and health contracts American Health Care contrasts government and market options to supply health services, showing that the market can go further in performing critical functions in health care. Detailed Summary

Table of Contents

• Foreword: Mark V. Pauly, Professor of Health Care Systems,University ofPennsylvania
• Introduction: Roger Feldman
• Part I. Health Insurance and Finance
  • Chapter 1: The Genesis and Development of Medicare
    • Ronald Hamowy, Professor of History, University of Alberta
  • Chapter 2: Medicare’s Progeny: The 1996 Health Care Legislation
    • Charlotte Twight, Professor of Economics, Boise State University
  • Chapter 3: Making Room for Medical Savings Accounts in the US Health CareSystem
    • Gail A. Jensen, Professor of Economics, Wayne State University
  • Chapter 4:Freedom of Contract: The Unexplored Path to Health Care Reform
    • Clark Havighurst, Professor of Law, Duke University
• Part II. Health Care Services
  • Chapter 5: Health Regulation and Antitrust
    • Barbara A. Ryan, Vice President, Capital Economics
  • Chapter 6: Anti-Discrimination in Health Care: Community Ratings and Pre-Existing Conditions
    • Richard A. Epstein, Professor of Law, University of Chicago
  • Chapter 7: State Health Care Reform: Protecting the Provider
    • Michael A. Morrisey, Professor of Health Care Organization, University of Alabama
• Part III: Drugs and Medication
  • Chapter 8: Regulation of the Pharmaceutical Industry
    • Ronald W. Hansen, Professor of Management, University of Rochester
  • Chapter 9: Ignorance is Death: The FDA’s Advertising Restrictions
    • Paul H. Rubin, Professor of Economics, Emory University
  • Chapter 10: Exploring Free Market Certification of Medical Devices
    • Noel D. Campbell, Professor of Economics, North Georgia College & State University
• Part IV: Health Care Personnel
  • Chapter 11: Physician Fees and Price Controls
    • H.E. Frech, III, Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Chapter 12: The Changing Role of Licensure in Promoting Incentives for Quality in Health Care
    • Shirley V. Svorny, Professor of Economics, California State University,Northridge
  • Chapter 13: Liability Reforms: Traditional and Radical Alternatives
    • Patricia M. Danzon, Professor of Health Systems, University of Pennsylvania
• Index

Praise for American Health Care

“Health care debate has too often been done ad hoc within a climate of political expediency.The excellent book, American Health Care, provides a comprehensive examination of the full scope of health care issues.Anyone interested in the future of health care should read this important and innovative book.”
—PAUL J. FELDSTEIN, Professor of Economics, Graduate School of Management, University of California, Irvine

“Markets, government and how to get them to work together is the exciting subject of this must-read bookAmerican Health Care.You vitally need to understand the issues and dilemmas it addresses.”
—C. EUGENE STEUERLE, Senior Fellow, The Urban Institute

“Tracing government involvement in health care from Otto von Bismarck’s 1883 health insurance plan for factory and mine workers to the Food and Drug Administration’s easing of advertising restrictions in 1997, American Health Care: Government, Market Processes and the Public Interest declares that government needs to get out of the health care business. The case for a market-based public policy approach to health care problems is cogently laid out. Regardless of political affiliation, for students of health policy, this book’s wealth of information and interesting insights make it well worth reading.”
—NATIONAL JOURNAL

“American Health Care is excellent with great pieces by some excellent scholars.”
—ALAIN C. ENTHOVEN, Marriner S. Eccles Professor, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

“Most health-care policy tomes are anachronistically built around the ‘should’ word, as in the government ‘should’ solve all the problems of the health care system.In contrast, the refreshing book, American Health Care, explores the appropriate roles of markets and government in health care with candor, authority, insight, and sprightly prose. Bravo!”
—REGINA E HERZLINGER, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University

“American Health Care illustrates that careful analysis trumps political rhetoric. Containing some of the country’s best thinkers on health markets, this excellent, fascinating and much-needed book lays out the tradeoffs we face in improving our system.The book provides a far better prescription for health policy than the simplistic remedies so often heard in Washington.”
—ROBERT B. HELMS, Director, Health Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

“American Health Care provides a wonderful wealth of knowledge for anyone trying to understand the modern health economy.”
—DAVID S. DRANOVE, Professor of Economics, Northwestern University

“American Health Care challenges the concept that government can effectively manage the nation’s health care. The book provides insight that allows learned readers to speculate about where markets can take health care now and in the future. This work presents concepts that are intended to generate constructive conversation toward the improvement of health care. American Health Care has provided ample scholarship to do so.”
—BUSINESS INFORMATION ALERT

About the Editor

Roger D. Feldman is Professor of Health Insurance, Center for Health Services Research at the University of Minnesota and a Research Fellow at The Independent Institute.