This paper studies the performance of immigrants relative to natives, in terms of their health status, use of health care services, lifestyles, and coverage of health expenditures. We base the analysis on international evidence that identified a healthy immigrant effect, complemented by...

In a recent article which appeared in this journal, Hoel and Saeter propose a model showing that welfare may be improved by introducing delay in public health care. In this note we argue that their model may be used as starting point because of their stringent assumptions. We suggest that the...

Health policy changes intended to achieve cost control in OECD countries run the risk of reintroducing financial barriers to health care. However, although the problems faced are similar, different countries are dealing with the situation in different ways. For example, Canada and Australia,...

A growing body of literature shows that child health has substantial long-term economic impacts. This study examines whether, and to what extent, increased access to health infrastructure leads to better child health status as measured by weight-for-age z-scores. To assess the causal...

The reforms that have reshaped most public health care system have often been accompained by a process of devolution. However, this process has not always produced the desired effects and the existence of widespread soft budget constraint policies at local level is well documented. In this paper...

In the midst of health care reform, Colombia has succeeded in increasing health insurance coverage and the quality of health care. In spite of this, efficiency continues to be a matter of concern, and small-area variations in health care are one of the plausible causes of such inefficiencies. In...

Public-private partnerships can have a particular impact on sectors where a public service needs to be sustained by the best available professional and technological knowledge in a condition of scarce resources. The growing trend of international-patient mobility suggests, the opportunity to...

In general, Americans support concepts that are on the table for health reform. For instance, a majority either strongly or somewhat support health insurance market reform, the availability of a public plan option, mandates on employers and individuals, and expansion of public programs to cover...

In this paper we develop a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium overlapping generations (OLG) model with health as a durable good to study the life-cycle behaviors of health care spending and financing. We show that a calibrated version of our generalized Grossman model is able to match the...

One of the important political goal in the coming years in Vietnam is the achievement of universal coverage of health insurance. For that purpose the government is pursuing the strategy to provide free health insurance cards to all the poor, the ethnic minority populations and the persons living...