Will Health Insurers Cover the Costs?

Generic drugs in cardiology: will they reduce health care costs?

The introduction of generic drugs should lower health care costs by reducing the price of drugs. The realization of this goal may, however, not be fully achieved: generic drugs may be underused or misused in comparison to prescription drugs because of a lack of ongoing postgraduate physician education. More importantly, there is little incentive to explore new indications for soon-to-be generic...

Do Health Insurers Possess Monopsony Power

This paper uses metropolitan data to test empirically if health insurers possess monopsony or monopoly-busting power on the buyer-side of the hospital services market. According to theory, monopsony power is indicated by a fall in output, whereas, monopoly-busting power is shown by an increase in output when buyer concentration rises. The empirical results provide evidence that greater health i...

High-deductible health plans: litigation hazards for health insurers.

Will risk-adjustment decrease health care costs? New evidence from the Medicare Advantage Program∗

To combat adverse selection, governments increasingly base payments to health plans and providers on enrollees’ scores from risk-adjustment formulae. But because the variance of medical costs increases with the predicted mean, incentivizing enrollment of individuals with higher scores can increase the scope for enrolling “over-priced” individuals with costs significantly below the formula’s pre...

NHI will drive costs down - Shisana.

The Ministerial Advisory Committee of 24 experts drawn from the entire health care spectrum is required to deliver advice to the draft proposals on NHI legislation to Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi by June next year. Public input will happen as soon as cabinet approves the policy proposals, so that the ensuing and legally required 3-month consultation process can be completed in time for M...