This paper examines the impact of devolution of responsibilities and finances to local governments in India on the health status and incomes of men and women. Using a national dataset with details on health, health-seeking behaviour and local governance, we estimate a system of simultaneous...

Health is not characterized only by the absence of disease; nowadays, health can be perceived as a human right. Health policies all over the world aim to increase the life expectancy, the health, and the quality of life of citizens, within the limits of the available resources. In this opinion...

On June 23, 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally approved the heart failure drug BiDil to treat heart failure in self-identified black patients. The drug itself is not actually new; it is merely a combination of two generic drugs that have been used to treat heart failure...

Very little is known about the productive efficiency of the large scale contracting-out mechanism that delivers basic healthcare services in Afghanistan. This study analyses the relative efficiency of basic package of health services (BPHS) facilities and examines the factors associated with the...

In this work we present some results obtained with a unique database of patient level data collected through GPs. The availability of such data opens new scenarios and paradigms for the planning and management of the health care system and for policy impact evaluation studies. The data set,...

This paper investigates the impact of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) dependent coverage mandate on health insurance coverage rates and health care utilization among young adults. Using data from the Medical Panel Expenditure Survey, I exploit the discontinuity in health insurance coverage...

There are inadequate consumer protections from harmful medical billing practices that result in unavoidable, unexpected, and often financially devastating medical bills. The problem stems from increasing cost shifting to patients underway in American health care and the inordinate complexity...

We examine how substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers respond to private health insurance expansions induced by state equal coverage ('parity') laws for SUD treatment. We use data on the near universe of specialty SUD treatment providers in the United States between 1997 and 2010 in an...

High maternal mortality ratios (MMR) serve as objective indicators of the poor condition of women's health in any country and point to violations of human rights that are entrenched in national, regional and global laws. For over a decade, Nigeria has consistently been in the top 5 listed...

After identifying the economic benefits that increased medical tourism from Canada to the United States may confer on the U.S. healthcare market and local economies, this essay analyzes applicable U.S. legal impediments that certain medical tourism arrangements — to wit, those involving a...