Discussion

1.  In Chapter 34, the author states that the two criteria for national  health insurance are: Efficiency, and Equity (please review definitions  in book prior to addressing this question; DO NOT use what you personally consider the terms mean, use the terms as the author defined them).

   a. Are progressive or regressive taxes (used to finance health) more “equitable”? Why?

    b. The author insinuates that in an “equitable” system, healthy  individuals and those with higher incomes are expected to incur the full  cost of the services they consume and partially subsidize the services  of individuals with health problems (e.g., individuals with  disabilities) and low-income groups. Can the government finance the  services for the sick and low-income groups without this kind of  redistribution? If so, how?

2.  In Chapter 34, the author argues that Essential Health Benefits (EHBs)  requirements under the ACA make it difficult to achieve “consumption  efficiency.” While this may be true, after reading Timothy Jost’s  article titled Essential Health Benefits: What Could Their Elimination Mean? (from week 7) do you think that:

    a. The EHB requirement should be removed?  Why? 

    b. Independent of your response in 2.a, if services are truly  “essential,” from a policy perspective, does it make sense not to  include them in a policy?

3.  After reading the article on how other systems perform compared to the  U.S. and reading Chapter 34, do you believe the U.S. should move to a  single-payer system? Why? (For purposes of this question, single payer  does not mean eliminating private insurance markets from the system; it  just means having all individuals in the same insurance risk pool).

• Production efficiency, as the first criterion, determines whether the services (for a given level of quality) are produced at the lowest cost. Efficiency in production not only includes whether the hospital portion of a treatment is produced at the lowest cost but also whether the treatment itself is produced at the minimum cost.
  
• For equitable redistribution to occur, those with higher income are expected to incur net costs (their taxes are in excess of their ben- efits), whereas those with low income should receive net benefits (benefits in excess of costs). When an individual’s costs are not equal to the benefits he receives, redistribution occurs. Thus, if redistribution is the goal, high- income groups should subsidize the care of those with low income; whether equitable redistribution occurs is the third criterion for evaluating alternative national health insurance plans.
  
• Those are the Terms
  
• I need about a paragraph for questions. In total there are 5 questions. Questions 1A,1B 2A, 2B, AND 3.