Frontiers in Health Policy Research.

• Position: Conferences

The NBER'S "Frontiers in Health Policy Research" conference was held on June 11 in Washington, D.C. NBER Reseach Associates David M. Cutler of Harvard University, Alan M. Garber of Stanford University, and Dana Goldman of RAND Corporation, organized the meeting. These papers were discussed:

Katherine Baicker, Harvard School of Public Health and NBER, 'Reform Proposals and the Market for Health Insurance"

Anupam B. Jena, University of Chicago; John E. Calfee, American Enterprise Insitute; Dana Goldman; Tomas J. Philipson, NBER and University of Chicago; and Edward C. Mansley, Merck & Co., "Me-Too Innovation In Pharmaceutical Markets"

Yaa Akosa Antwi, Carnegie Mellon University; Martin Gaynor, NBER and Carnegie Mellon University; and William B. Vogt, RAND Corporation and NBER, "Hospital Prices in the Wake of the 1990s Merger Wave: Evidence from California"

Sherry A. Glied, Columbia University and NBER; Ashwin Prabhu, Columbia University; and Norman Edelman, State University of New York, Stony Brook, "The Physician Workforce as an Investment in Human Capital"

Phillip B. Levine, Wellesley College, and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, University of Chicago, "Children's Health and Educational Outcomes"

The goals of different health reform proposals are varied, but at their core many aim to increase both the extent and the stability of health insurance coverage. Some propose to do this through the expansion of public programs, others through the reform of private health insurance markets, often coupled with the availability of subsidies for low-income or high-expenditure population. Some of these proposals are explicitly intended to affect the individual and small-group markets, while others may have unintended or indirect effects. These proposals have very different implications for the type of insurance policies that will be available, the number and composition of those covered by insurance, the cost of those policies (both in private premiums and in public expenditures), and the value and quality of care delivered through the health care system. A clearer understanding of these implications can help to facilitate a more realistic assessment of both the upside potential and the downside risks of different proposals. Baicker synthesizes existing evidence to shed light on the effect of different reform proposals. Proposals that focus exclusively on coverage threaten to be unsustainable, and design details can have profound effects on the level and...