Behavioral Economics and Public Policy | Health Policy

Economics Behaving Badly

Byadmin July 15, 2010

George Loewenstein and I have an Op-Ed in the New York Times today. Check it out, and feel free to add your comments.

Obamacare and Donut Holes

Byadmin June 27, 2012

If you thought donuts were bad for your health, consider donut holes. Specifically, the donut hole sitting smack in the middle of Medicare Part D, the program helping senior citizens pay for their medications. The donut hole is a gap in coverage causing people, once they’ve received a certain level of financial support for their prescriptions, to have to go it alone for a while, bea
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Health Policy

Health Insurance in Massachusetts: Paying More, Getting Less

Byadmin August 19, 2013

A new report out of Massachusetts concludes that people there are paying more for their health insurance, at the same time that the services covered by their insurance are declining. Here’s a picture from a Kaiser summary of the report: The Kaiser story also points out that a big problem in Massachusetts is that people…

Behavioral Economics and Public Policy

Debates About the Use of Behavioral Economics in India

Byadmin December 8, 2014

Here is the start of a great essay exploring the promise of using behavioral economics in India to promote social goals. Thought you might want to see it. In his book ‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’, Adam Smith wrote: “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which…

Behavioral Economics and Public Policy | Health Care Cost | Health Policy

Healthcare.gov 3.0–Improving the Design of the Obamacare Exchanges

Byadmin February 19, 2015

I joined two other, much smarter, colleagues in calling for the use of behavioral economics and decision psychology to improve the design of the websites people use to purchase health insurance in the U.S. That article came out today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here is a taste: In October 2013, the Affordable…

Behavioral Economics and Public Policy

Careful When You Come Up For Parole

Byadmin March 19, 2014

Parole boards are supposed to objectively assess whether inmates eligible for parole deserve to be released from prison before the end of their sentence. They need to determine whether people are reformed, whether they have been behaving themselves in prison, and whether they pose unacceptable risks to society. But it turns out their decisions may…

Health Policy

Is Health Insurance Anti-Life?

Byadmin September 17, 2012

Catholic Charities describes itself as a “social justice movement,” one that sees its mission as providing “service to people in need” and giving aid to local agencies “in their efforts to reduce poverty.” Given the role of healthcare expenses in pushing people into poverty, then, you would think Roman Catholic leaders would be big fans…

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