In a general equilibrium, overlapping generations framework this paper examines how the tax-benefit system that underlies the U.S. health care system affects the well-being of different age groups, and the lifetime well-being of different socioeconomic groups, as well as society as a whole. We find that the optimal set and generosity of publicly funded health care programs is sensitive to the social welfare function and to the prices that various agents in society pay for medical care. Social welfare under the current financing system is also compared to alternative financing mechanisms such as Medical Savings Accounts. Copyright 2002 by Blackwell Publishing Inc.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)