Hidden Costs, Value Lost

Uninsurance in America

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• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Year: 2003
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9780309133203
• Topic: Economics
• Index: Economics

Hidden Cost, Value Lost, the fifth of a series of six books on the consequences of uninsurance in the United States, illustrates some of the economic and social losses to the country of maintaining so many people without health insurance. The book explores the potential economic and societal benefits that could be realized if everyone had health insurance on a continuous basis, as people over age 65 currently do with Medicare.Hidden Costs, Value Lost concludes that the estimated benefits across society in health years of life gained by providing the uninsured with the kind and amount of health services that the insured use, are likely greater than the additional social costs of doing so. The potential economic value to be gained in better health outcomes from uninterrupted coverage for all Americans is estimated to be between $65 and $130 billion each year.

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• COMMITTEE ON THE CONSEQUENCES OFUNINSURANCE
• Reviewers
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Executive Summary
• 1INTRODUCTION
• 2Costs, Benefits, and Value:Context, Concepts, andApproach
• 3Spending on Health Care forUninsured Americans:How Much, and Who Pays?
• 4 Other Costs Associated withUninsurance
• 5The Cost of the AdditionalCare That the UninsuredWould Use If They HadInsurance Coverage
• 6 Social and Economic Costs ofUninsurance in Context
• AGlossary
• B Coverage Does Matter:The Value of Health Forgoneby the Uninsured
• WHOSE HEALTH LOSS ARE WE MEASURING?
• HEALTH CAPITAL: A FRAMEWORK FORMEASURING HEALTH
• MEASURING THE CHANGE IN HEALTH CAPITALEMPIRICALLY: YEARS OF LIFE APPROACH
• MEASURING THE CHANGE IN HEALTH CAPITAL EMPIRICALLY: THE QALY APPROACH
• CONCLUSION: TOTAL COST OF HEALTH FOR GONE BY THE UNINSURED
• C Biographical Sketches
• COMMITTEE ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNINSURANCE SUB COMMITTEE ON THE SOCIETAL COSTS OF UNINSURED POPULATIONS
• References