The Incidental Economist

I signed up for Zeke Emanuel’s Coursera course Health Policy and the Affordable Care Act. I confess, however, that I’m not keeping up with the lectures. In the comments, steve noted the good resources Emanuel lists for his class. Since very few of you will have signed up for the course, I thought I’d reproduce that list here. I believe it is all ungated/free. Much of it, or similar, has been cited on this blog before. Happy reading.

(Note: Some of these documents are long. Emanuel just assigns portions or the executive summary in some cases. In others he suggests browsing. I deleted his suggestions because I’m not sure if I am really free to share any content of the course here. But providing links to publicly available resources should not be in violation of anything (right?). So that’s all I’m doing. Of course you should read what you like.)

Access to health care

• Kaiser Foundation (2010). “The Uninsured: A Primer.” http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/7451-06.pdf.
• Kaiser Foundation (2010). “Medicare: A Primer.” http://www.kff.org/medicare/upload/7615-03.pdf.
• Kaiser Foundation (2010). “Medicaid: A Primer.” http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7334-04.pdf.

Quality of health care

• E. Docteur and R. Berenson for the Urban Institute and RWJ Foundation (2009). “How Does the Quality of US Health Care Compare Internationally?” http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/411947ushealthcarequality.pdf.
• GapMinder World (2012). Find the US on the following graphs by hovering over the circles and compare its performance to other OECD countries (in light green): infant mortality (www.bit.ly/Kpa1h3), life expectancy (www.bit.ly/MSsLuR).
• Institute of Medicine (2000). “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System.” http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9728&page=1.

Cost of US health care in international context

• Kaiser Foundation (2009). “Health Care Costs: A Primer.” http://www.kff.org/insurance/upload/7670_02.pdf.
• McKinsey Global Institute (2008). “Accounting for the cost of US health care: A new look at why Americans spend more.” http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/MGI/Research/Americas/AccountingforthecostofUShealth_care.
• M. Pauly (2007). “The Truth about Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection.” http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/uploadedFiles/cpr/publications/pb36.pdf.

Growth in US health care costs

• CBO (2008). “Technological Change and the Growth of Health Care Spending.” http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/89xx/doc8947/01-31-TechHealth.pdf.
• D. Cutler and M. McClellan (2001). “Is Technological Change In Medicine Worth It?” In Health Affairs, vol. 20 no. 5. http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/20/5/11.full.

Health care malpractice

• M. Mello for the RWJ Foundation (2006). “Understanding medical malpractice insurance: A primer.”http://www.rwjf.org/pr/synthesis/reportsandbriefs/pdf/no8_primer.pdf.
• CBO (2009). “CGO’s Analysis of the Effects of Proposals to Limit Costs Related to Medical Malpractice (‘Tort Reform’).” http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10641/10-09-tort_reform.pdf.
• M. Mello and A. Chandra in the New York Times (2009). “The Cap Doesn’t Fit.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/opinion/12mello.html?_r=1.

History of health care reform

• Kaiser Foundation (2009). “National Health Insurance—A Brief History of Reform Efforts in the US.” http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7871.pdf.
• CBO (2008). “Key Issues in Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals.” http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9924/12-18-keyissues.pdf.
• E. Goodridge and S. Arnquist for the New York Times (2010). “A History of Overhauling Health Care.”http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/us/politics/20090717HEALTHTIMELINE.html.
• C. Mery, A. Liepert and D. Cooke for the American College of Surgeons (2010). “The modern history of US health care reform.”http://www.facs.org/fellows_info/bulletin/2010/mery0710.pdf.

The ACA and access to health care

• Kaiser Foundation (2011). “Summary of New Health Reform Law.” http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/8061.pdf.
• Department of Health and Human Services (2012). “What’s Changing and When.” http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/.
• Kaiser Foundation (2010). “Explaining Health Care Reform: Questions About Health Insurance Subsidies.” http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7962-02.pdf.
•  Use the Massachusetts Health Connector to “buy” insurance. https://www.mahealthconnector.org/portal/site/connector/ . (Use zip code 02138. When you get to the message that “Enrollment is closed”, click “Browse Now” under the heading “Just window shopping?”)

The ACA and cost control

• P. Orszag and E. Emanuel (2010). “Health Care Reform and Cost Control.” http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1006571. In the New England Journal of Medicine 363; 7.
• CBO (2009). “An Analysis of Health Insurance Premiums Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10781/11-30-Premiums.pdf.
• J. Gruber (2009). “The House Proposal Lowers Non-Group Premiums.” http://www.healthpolicyproject.org/Publications_files/Business/2010/GruberHousenongroup11-2-1.pdf.
• J. Gruber (2011). “The Impacts of the Affordable Care Act: How Reasonable Are the Projections?” NBER Working Paper #17168. http://economics.mit.edu/files/6829.
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2012). “The Affordable Care Act: Lowering Medicare Costs by Improving Care.”http://www.cms.gov/apps/files/ACA-savings-report-2012.pdf.
• S. Harrington (2009). “The Health Insurance Reform Debate.” https://hcmg.wharton.upenn.edu/files/?whdmsaction=public:main.file&fileID=1594.

The ACA and health care delivery

• H. Komisar, J. Feder and P. Ginsburg for the Center for American Progress. “’Bundling’ Payment for Episodes of Hospital Care.”http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/07/pdf/medicare_bundling.pdf.
• J. Gruber (2011). “The Impacts of the Affordable Care Act: How Reasonable Are the Projections?” NBER Working Paper #17168. http://economics.mit.edu/files/6829.
• M. Merlis for AcademyHealth (2011). “The Affordable Care Act and Employer-Sponsored Insurance for Working Americans.”http://www.academyhealth.org/files/nhpc/2011/AH_2011AffordableCareReportFINAL3.pdf.
• H. Aaron (2011). “The Independent Payment Advisory Board – Congress’s ‘Good Deed’.” In New England Journal of Medicine 364.http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1105144.
• Association of American Medical Colleges (2010). “Independent Payment Advisory Board IPAB (IPAB).”https://www.aamc.org/advocacy/medicare/153896/independentpaymentadvisoryboardipab.html.

The ACA and innovation

• McKinsey & Company (2011). “Cross-currents in the health economy.” Download the full report at the bottom of http://healthreform.mckinsey.com/Insights/Latestthinking/Crosscurrentsinthehealtheconomy.
• J. Cacciotti and M. Mozeson for Oliver Wyman. “How ACA Could Transform the US Pharmaceutical Marketplace.”http://www.oliverwyman.com/media/ACAandthePharmaMarketplace.pdf.

@afrakt