Dec 27, 2012, 3:00 PM, Posted by
Mitesh Patel
While most people spend a few hours a year visiting the doctor, they spend another 5,000 waking hours without any direct contact from the U.S. health care system. There has been an increasing amount of attention on how to design systems that encourage healthy behaviors among the population during their everyday activities. Insights from behavioral economics provide opportunities to design systems that monitor, incentivize and provide feedback to encourage these changes.
One proposal to change behavior is to increase price transparency in the U.S, with initiatives at the state and federal levels. Lessons from other industries and concepts from behavioral economics demonstrate that this must be designed carefully to increase the likelihood that price transparency changes behavior.
One example is the use of calorie-labeling in fast food restaurants. While its intended outcome is to reduce consumer consumption, there are several reasons why it has thus far not been very successful. Consumers may not understand the caloric information or the problem may be self-control and not related to information at all.
Using concepts from behavioral economics such as framing the information or making it more salient could improve its impact on reducing calorie consumption.
As the New Year approaches, millions of Americans will make resolutions to improve their diet, increase their exercise, or to quit smoking. Let’s do our part to design systems that help our population meet their goals and increase healthy behavior.
This commentary originally appeared on the RWJF Human Capital Blog. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors.
Dec 26, 2012, 10:00 AM, Posted by
Fenaba Addo
My New Year's resolution for the U.S. health care system and population health is that there is more sustained attention to the fragile economic state of many of America’s families and households, especially as we continue to climb out of this most recent Great Recession. I say this in light of the strong empirical evidence that economic inequality continues to be inextricable linked to health disparities within our country. I also believe it is especially important at this moment in U.S. history, given the increasing calls to balance the federal budget by defunding social safety net programs— in particular those that provide social insurance to America’s most economically vulnerable populations.
A significant portion of the U.S. population is still either unemployed or underemployed. Many Americans remain deeply concerned about health care costs or the threat of financial instability due to health-related problems. The passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act was a positive step to ensure proper health care coverage for those previously shut out of private health insurance markets, such as young adults and individuals with pre-existing health conditions. It would be naïve, however, to think that just one policy will provide the economic security U.S. households need to be productive workers and active consumers.
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Dec 24, 2012, 10:30 AM, Posted by
Neale Mahoney
If you’re looking for peace and joy this holiday season, don’t invite a liberal and a conservative health economist to your holiday party. Health economists from the political left and the political right tend to have very different views on what ails the U.S. health care system – and what should be done to fix it. After a glass or two of punch, they are likely to become loud and argumentative—dampening the holiday spirit.
But if you’re Barack Obama and John Boehner, and you’re looking to heal our health care system this holiday, invite over a few strident health economists and let the eggnog flow. There are important truths being articulated by both extremes of the health policy spectrum. A wise policy-maker would harness this diversity of wisdom.
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Dec 21, 2012, 10:06 AM, Posted by
Ted Eytan
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