What Is Health Insurance Good For? ― An Examination of Who Gets It, Who Pays for It, and How to Improve It

This informative volume synthesizes the literatures on health economics, risk management, and health services into a concise guide to the financial and social basics of health insurance with an eye to its wide-scale upgrade. Its scope takes in concepts of health capital, strengths and limitations of insurance models, the effectiveness of coverage and services, and the roles of healthcare providers and government agencies in the equation. Coverage surveys the current state of group and public policies, most notably the effects of the Affordable Care Act on insurers and consumers and the current interest in universal coverage and single-payer plans. Throughout, the author provides systemic reasons to explain why today’s health insurance fails so many consumers, concluding with reality-based recommendations for making insurance more valuable to both today’s market and consumer well-being.

Included among the topics:

 

·Defining health insurance and healthcare finance.

·Consuming and investing in health.

·The scope of health insurance and its constraints.

·Matching health insurance supply and demand.

·The role of government in health insurance.

·Ongoing challenges and the future of health insurance.

Bringing a needed degree of objectivity to often highly subjective material, What Is Health Insurance (Good) For? is a call to reform to be read by health insurance researchers (including risk management insurance and health services research), professionals, practitioners, and policymakers.

Robert D. Lieberthal, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Department of Public Health. His disciplinary background includes the fields of health economics, risk management and insurance, and health services research. Dr. Lieberthal focuses his research on the economic and actuarial analysis of public health problems, with a special interest in the efficiency and effectiveness of health insurance. He previously held a faculty appointment at Thomas Jefferson University's College of Population Health in Philadelphia and worked as an actuarial benefits consultant at Pricewaterhousecoopers LLP (PwC) in New York City. Dr. Lieberthal received his PhD in Managerial Science and Applied Economics with a focus on Health Economics and Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His teaching focus is on health finance.