To ensure safety and efficacy, the Food and Drug Administration regulates the medicines that pharmacies are allowed to sell in the US. Sometimes this means that a company must test a drug for years before receiving FDA approval and reaching the market. We can easily identify the "winners" in this system as those who are protected from unsafe drugs that might otherwise harm them. Who are the more "anonymous losers" who suffer due to the strict FDA medical regulations?

To ensure safety and efficacy, the Food and Drug Administration regulates the medicines that pharmacies are allowed to sell in the US. Sometimes this means that a company must test a drug for years before receiving FDA approval and reaching the market. We can easily identify the "winners" in this system as those who are protected from unsafe drugs that might otherwise harm them. Who are the more "anonymous losers" who suffer due to the strict FDA medical regulations?

EBK HEALTH ECONOMICS AND POLICY

7th Edition

ISBN:9781337668279

Author:Henderson

Publisher:Henderson

Chapter7: The Market For Health Insurance

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 5QAP

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Some economists have suggested that the best way to control medical costs is to remove the profit incentive for health care providers, particularly hospitals. This would involve making all hospitals not-for-profit institutions. Use the utility maximization model to explain the likely impact such a policy would have on the cost of producing hospital services. What would happen if instead a policy was instituted that reduced barriers to entry in the hospital sector and therefore made the market more competitive?
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Moral hazard creates tradeoffs that complicate insurance design and policy choices. Imagine a linear demand curve for outpatient clinician visits, and assume at $100 per visit there would be 50,000 annual visits to a particular urban clinic. A politician would like to be popular, and proposes making clinic visits free (zero price). You know, as the city's staff health economist, that if this were to happen, the number of visits would rise to 75,000. Your job is to testify before the city council, and answer at least two questions: how much social welfare loss from moral hazard would occur; and how much tax money must be raised to finance clinic services if visits were made completely free? a. $2,500,000; $15,000,000 b. $5,000,000; $30,000,000 c. $1,250,000; $7,500,000 d. $3,750,000; $22,500,000
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