ECON 4397 – Seminar in Economics: Health Economics

Course Homepage

Dr. Edward Schumacher

Spring 2007

Policy Journals:  Your synthesis is due by Friday May 4th at 5pm.  Please email them to me.

Cindy Ha

Jeremy Allen

Jocelyn Stokes

Mathew Weldon

Sarah Bradbury

Tyler Wilson

Kyle Webb

Laura Smith

 

 

 

 

How to Reach Me

Course Syllabus

Lecture Notes

Copies of The Papers

Questions for the Exams

 

 

How to Reach Me

Office: Chapman 402
Phone: 210.999.8137
Fax: 210.999.8108
email: eschumac@trinity.edu
Office Hours:  M W 2-4pm, T Th 10-11 or by appointment
Home Page:www.trinity.edu/eschumac

Lecture Notes. 

Week 2 January 16-18  Also see the following: A Surprising Secret to a Long Life Stay in School - New York Times

 

Week 3 January 23-25   Also see the following:   The Moral Hazard Myth

 

Week 4 January 30 Feb. 1  We’ll also discuss the Martin Feldstein paper found below

Week 5 Feb 6-8  Also see the following:           Wall Street Journal Medicare Will Pay Insurers More to Take Sicker Patients

Wall Street Journal:  Give Us Your Sick

                                                                        New York Times: Medicare Links Doctors’ Pay to Practices

 

Week 6 Feb 13-15  Also see the following       NY Times: Experts See Peril in Bush Health Proposal

                                                                        Wall Street Journal: As Health Middlemen Thrive, Employers Try to Tame Them

                                                                        Wall Street Journal: In Health Care -- Consumer Theory Falls Flat

Weeks 8 and 9 Feb 27, March 1, 6, 8  Also see the following: New York Times-- To Lower Costs, Hospitals Try Free Basic Care for Uninsured

 

Weeks 11 (and 12?), March 22, 27, 29  Also see the following: TIME Magazine -- The Hospital Wars            

Week 13, April 3, 5   Also see the following:     Wall Street Journal: Merck Gives Glimpse at Its Drug Pipeline

New York Times: Bridling at Insulin’s Cost, States Push for Generics

Wall Street Journal: Selling Generic Drugs by Mail Turns Into Lucrative Business

Week 14, April 9, 11  Also see the following:    Wall Street Journal: In Medicaid, Private HMOs Take a Big, and Profitable, Role

                                   

 

Copies of the Class Papers. 

The following papers are in pdf format.

Readings:

Feldstein, Martin, “Balancing the Goals of Health Care Provision and Financing,” Health Affairs, 25(6), November/December 2006, 1603-1611

 

Enthoven, Alain C., and Victor R. Fuchs. “Employment-Based Health Insurance: Past, Present, and Future,” Health Affairs, 25(6), November/December 2006, 1538-1547.

 

Reinhardt, Uwe E. “The Pricing of US Hospital Services: Chaos Behind a Veil of Secrecy,” Health Affairs, 25(1) January/February 2006, 57-69.

 

Greenwald, Leslie, et al. “Specialty Versus Community Hospitals: Referrals, Quality and Community Benefits,”  Health Affairs, 25(1), January/February 2006, 106-118.

 

Marmor, Theodore R., and Jerry L. Mashaw, “Understanding Social Insurance: Fairness, Affordability, and the ‘Modernization’ of Social Security and Medicare,” Health Affairs, Web Exclusive, March 21, 2006. 

 

Rodwin, Marc A., Hak J. Chang, and Jeffrey Clausen. “Malpractice Premiums and Physicians’ Income: Perceptions of a Crisis Conflict with Empirical Evidence,” Health Affairs, 25(3), May/June 2006, 750-758.

 

Haislmaier, Edmond F. and Nina Owcharenko. “The Massachusetts Approach: A New Way to Restructure State Health Insurance Markets and Public Programs,” Health Affairs, 25(6) November/December 2006, 1580-1590.

 

 

Questions for the Midterms and Final Exams

Midterm 1 Questions:

In MS WORD  or  PDF File

 

Midterm 2 Questions

Exam 2 Long Answer Questions

            Wall Street Journal Articles to go with question 6

                        Wall Street Journal: Pharmacy-Benefit Firms Profit on Generic Drugs

                        Wall Street Journal: As Health Middlemen Thrive, Employers Try to Tame Them