Spending on healthcare in the United States has been growing faster than the economy itself, even while the share of the population without health care was increasing. The 2010 Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) was intended to reverse these trends but has had economic side effects.
The ACA and ongoing attempts at health care reform involve a complex mix of subsidies, incentives, regulations, and taxes. This, in turn, affects insurance markets, labor costs, employment trends, and other economic variables.
In this panel, experts shared their views on how health care reform affects the federal budget and how the forces it sets in motion ripple through the economy. Participants included:
- James Baumgardner, senior research economist at Precision Health Economics, who analyzed many health and insurance issues in his 20-year tenure at the Congressional Budget Office
- Anup Malani, Lee and Brena Freeman Professor at the University of Chicago Law School and a Professor at the Pritzker School of Medicine, who studies the value of medical innovation and health care insurance
- Casey Mulligan, professor of economics, who has documented positive and negative impacts of the ACA
- Moderator: Kevin Murphy, who studies the economic value of improvements in health and longevity, as well as the economics of growth and development, inequality, unemployment, and relative wages.
DETAILS
Joseph Regenstein Library Room 122
1100 E 57th Street, Chicago
5:30 p.m. – Reception
6:00 p.m. – Discussion and Q & A
This event was organized as part of the institute’s Health Economics Initiative.