Exam 5: The Economics of Health Care

Most employees ________ pay taxes on the value of health insurance provided by employers,and most people ________ get a tax break when buying individual health insurance policies.

In the United States from 1981 to 2011,deaths from which of the following increased?

In the United States,health care spending per person based on income per person is ________ the average for most other countries.

In the United States,consumers usually pay less than the true cost of medical treatment because of

In the United States,the bulk of health care spending is paid by health insurance companies.Such a system is also called a third-party payer system where consumers of health care pay a nominal fee and the rest are paid by the health insurance provider.Why might such a system lead to an inefficient outcome?

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the additional taxes and fees enacted under the ACA will not even cover half of the true cost of the ACA.

Suppose consumers pay less than the true cost of medical services because a third party,such as an insurance company,pays most of the bill.Draw a graph showing the supply and demand for medical services with and without a third-party payer.Identify the market equilibrium without insurance,the market equilibrium with insurance,and the area representing the deadweight loss.Be sure to label the efficient and the market prices and quantities.

Of the following high-income countries,which has the highest infant mortality rate?

About ________ of pharmaceutical patents are issued to U.S.firms.

Figure 5-2 Figure 5-2 represents the market for vaccinations.Vaccinations are considered a benefit to society, and the figure shows both the marginal private benefit and the marginal social benefit from vaccinations. -Refer to Figure 5-2.Marginal social benefit is represented by which curve?

Since 1960,out-of-pocket spending on health care has increased sharply as a fraction of all health care spending.

Basic supply and demand analysis indicates that having firms rather than the government provide health insurance to workers

Some economists have argued that certain characteristics of the delivery of health care justify government intervention.One of these characteristics is

Uninsured patients receiving treatments at hospital emergency rooms that could have been provided less expensively at doctor's offices account for ________ of health care costs in the United States.

What is asymmetric information?

Suppose that in a market for used cars,there are good used cars and bad used cars (lemons).Consumers are willing to pay as much as $6,000 for a good used car but only $1,000 for a lemon.Sellers of good used cars value their cars at $5,000 each and sellers of lemons value their cars at $800 each.Buyers cannot tell if a used car is reliable or is a lemon.Based on this information,what is the likely outcome in the market for used cars?

Some economists and policymakers who are in favor of government-provided health care believe that providing health care will

College education tends to result in a positive externality because the recipient receives the full benefit of the education.

On average,people in the United States spend a smaller percentage of their income on health care than do people in most other countries.

Doctors have ________ incentive to control their costs when consumers ________ for a visit to the doctor's office.