We study the effect of privatizing Medicaid drug benefits on prices and utilization. Drug spending would decrease by 21.3 percent if private insurers administered all benefits. One-third is driven insurers’ ability to negotiate with pharmacies. The remaining two-thirds greater use lower cost drugs, such as generics, only realized in states that give flexibility design Privatization does not red...

Housing is mostly exempted from Medicaid and Supplemental Social Insurance means tests. Reforms of this special treatment have been debated, but little known about its costs, benefits, redistributive implications. I estimate a life cycle model single retirees accounting for exemption. It shows that the homestead exemption explains important patterns recipiency it highly valued. also estate reco...

Many safety net programs issue benefits as monthly lump-sum payments. We investigate how the timing of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit issuance affects food purchases and incidence transfer. Using scanner data from a large sample grocery stores state time variation in SNAP schedules, we document large, SNAP-induced intramonth cycles expenditures. However, find that reta...

To investigate barriers to universal health insurance in developing countries, we designed a randomized experiment involving about 6,000 households Indonesia who are subject government program with weakly enforced mandate. Time-limited subsidies increased enrollment and attracted lower-cost enrollees, part by reducing the strategic timing of correspond needs. Registration assistance also enroll...

Most doctors in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) match with one of their most preferred internship programs. However, surveys indicate doctors’ preferences are similar, suggesting a puzzle: how can so many top choices when positions scarce? We provide possible explanation. show that patterns NRMP data may be an artifact interview process precedes match. Our study highlights importa...

This paper uses the rollout of the first Community Health Centers (CHCs) to study the longer-term health effects of increasing access to primary care. Within ten years, CHCs are associated with a reduction in age-adjusted mortality rates of 2 percent among those 50 and older. The implied 7 to 13 percent decrease in one-year mortality risk among beneficiaries amounts to 20 to 40 percent of the 1...

The food environment is increasingly hypothesized to cause obesity. This study investigates the impacts of access to supermarkets, the primary source of healthy foods, on the bodyweight outcomes of children. The empirical analysis uses a statewide individual-level panel data set covering health screenings of public schoolchildren along with annual georeferenced business lists and utilizes the p...

Losers and Losers: Some Demographics of Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms Our research examines individual differences in the effects of medical malpractice tort reforms on pre-trial settlement speed and settlement amounts by age and most likely settlement size. Findings of note include that, unlike previously assumed, both absolute and percentage losses from tort reform are small for infants in...

Patient hospital choice reform in Norway was introduced in 2001. Waiting times for treatments at hospitals were published, and patients and their physicians were able to select hospitals for services. We develop a model of patient response, and study the empirical impact of the reform. Our data set consists of hospital admission information between 1999 and 2005, as well as hospital and area ch...

This report describes the organisation of the Belgian long-term care system. It can be characterised as a mixed system, with extensive public care provision and the substantial support of informal care provided mainly within the family. While the current volume and quality of services appears to be adequate, the future increase in the number of dependent elderly persons over the next two decade...