This book provides key economic facts, explains the economic concepts needed to examine the implications of these facts, and summarizes the results of empirical studies regarding our healthcare system's access, cost, and quality problems as well as identifying six key trends that are reforming...

part Section I: Pressures for Change -- chapter 1 Access -- chapter 2 Cost -- chapter 3 Quality -- chapter Conclusion to Section I -- chapter Introduction -- chapter 4 Align Incentives via Payment System Design -- chapter 5 Managed Care Organizations, Accountable Care Organizations, and...

Mortality rates from coronary heart disease (CHD), which had risen during the twentieth century in many countries, started declining in some countries during the 1960s. Once initial skepticism about the validity of the observed trends dissipated, researchers attempted to generate explanations...