Reducing Healthcare Costs Requires Good Market Design

Peter Cramton

Papers of Peter Cramton from University of Maryland, Department of Economics - Peter Cramton

Abstract: One sensible way to reduce healthcare costs is to harness market forces, where practical, to nurture competition and innovation. Lower prices and improved services should follow. However, the switch to market pricing is not an easy one. Medicare’s experience with medical supplies illustrates the challenges and offers some important lessons. The key lesson is that government programs can benefit from introducing market methods, but doing so requires good market design—something that may not come naturally to the implementing agency, especially in light of political forces and organizational inertia.

Keywords: Medicare auctions; health care auctions; procurement auctions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D44 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 5 pages
Date: 2012, Revised 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com and nep-hea
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Published in The Economists’ Voice, 7:4, October 2010

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Journal Article: Reducing Healthcare Costs Requires Good Market Design (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pcc:pccumd:10ckrhc

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