Perspectives Articles: Exploring Stakeholder Perspectives on What Is Affordable Health Care |
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| Authors: | Marjorie A Rosenberg Paul H Johnson Jr Ian G Duncan |
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| Institution: | 1. Marjorie A. Rosenberg is with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin School of Business, Departments of Actuarial Science, Risk Management and Insurance, and Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, 5297 Grainger Hall, Madison, WI 53706;2. phone: (608) 262‐1683;3. fax: (608) 265‐4195;4. e‐mail: mrosenberg@bus.wisc.edu. Paul H. Johnson, Jr. is with University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, Department of Mathematics, 361 Altgeld Hall, Urbana, IL 61801;5. phone: (217) 244‐5517;6. fax: (217) 333‐9576;7. e‐mail: pjohnson@uiuc.edu. Ian G. Duncan is with Solucia, Inc., Solucia, Inc. Main Office, 220 Farmington Avenue, Suite 4, Farmington, CT 06032;8. phone: (860) 676‐8808;9. fax: (860) 676‐8848;10. e‐mail: duncan@soluciaconsulting.com. We would like to thank the Society of Actuaries (SOA) for initiating this project and the following individuals Jeffrey G. Allen, Kara L. Clark, John P. Cookson, Jie Gao, Cynthia S. Miller, and Zenaida M. Samaniego for their support. This article was subject to double‐blind peer review. |
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| Abstract: | Health care expenditures have accounted for increasing proportions of the U.S. gross domestic product, and the rate of growth of health care expenditures has increased over the past two decades. These two measures of assessing whether the level of health care expenditures is affordable may be appropriate in the aggregate for the United States but are not appropriate to assess whether individual stakeholder groups can afford their particular level of spending on health care. Health care is an economic good that differs from other economic goods, as it involves life and death issues, and invokes a call for a moral authority. This article explores definitions of what is affordable health care from the perspective of different stakeholders and suggests that other measures are needed to assess whether or not health care is affordable for stakeholders as one definition is not appropriate for all stakeholders. |
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