The paper exploits panel data finite mixture (latent class) models to measure consumer equity in healthcare access and utilization. The finite mixture approach accounts for unobservable consumer heterogeneity, while generalized linear models address a retransformation problem of logged dependent variable. Using the data of the Japan Household Panel Survey (2009–2014), we discover that consumers separate into latent classes in the binary choice models for healthcare use and generalized linear models for outpatient/inpatient healthcare expenditure. The results reveal that healthcare access in Japan is pro-poor for the most sick consumers, while utilization of outpatient care is equitable with respect to disposable income.

Health is one of the most crucial parts of our lives. To a great degree, factors such as living conditions, income, education, age, or even relations with our environment, health-related policies and access to health services might have a potential impact on health-related outcomes. Therefore, it is important to evaluate to what extent our health is affected by such factors using econometric and quantitative techniques. The application of such methods within the scope of health-related problems provides a more robust approach to individuals along with policymakers and increases the efficiency of government policies. This book gathers selected studies addressing both quantitative economic and econometric applications within the scope of health with the intention of aiming at the graduate and post-graduate students, researchers and academics of econometrics, economics and related social sciences. The book consists of ten chapters. The last chapter is a special chapter allocated to “Young Researchers” in order to support and encourage their studies.

Large-scale survey datasets, in particular complex survey designs such as panel data, provide a rich source of information for health economists. They offer the scope to control for individual heterogeneity and to model the dynamics of individual behaviour. However the measures of outcome used in health economics are often qualitative or categorical. These create special problems for estimating econometric models. The dramatic growth in computing power over recent years has been accompanied by the development of methods that help to solve these problems. This book provides a practical guide to the skills required to put these techniques into practice. This book illustrates practical applications of these methods using data on health from, among others, the British Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS), the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) and the WHO Multi-Country Survey (WHO-MCS). Assuming a familiarity with the basic syntax and structure of Stata, this book presents and explains the statistical output using empirical case studies rather than general theory. Never before has a health economics text brought theory and practice together and this book will be of great benefit to applied economists, as well as advanced undergraduate and post graduate students in health economics and applied econometrics.

An up-to-date, comprehensive account of major issues in finitemixture modeling This volume provides an up-to-date account of the theory andapplications of modeling via finite mixture distributions. With anemphasis on the applications of mixture models in both mainstreamanalysis and other areas such as unsupervised pattern recognition,speech recognition, and medical imaging, the book describes theformulations of the finite mixture approach, details itsmethodology, discusses aspects of its implementation, andillustrates its application in many common statisticalcontexts. Major issues discussed in this book include identifiabilityproblems, actual fitting of finite mixtures through use of the EMalgorithm, properties of the maximum likelihood estimators soobtained, assessment of the number of components to be used in themixture, and the applicability of asymptotic theory in providing abasis for the solutions to some of these problems. The author alsoconsiders how the EM algorithm can be scaled to handle the fittingof mixture models to very large databases, as in data miningapplications. This comprehensive, practical guide: * Provides more than 800 references-40% published since 1995 * Includes an appendix listing available mixture software * Links statistical literature with machine learning and patternrecognition literature * Contains more than 100 helpful graphs, charts, and tables Finite Mixture Models is an important resource for both applied andtheoretical statisticians as well as for researchers in the manyareas in which finite mixture models can be used to analyze data.

The first edition of Applied Health Economics did an expert job of showing how the availability of large scale data sets and the rapid advancement of advanced econometric techniques can help health economists and health professionals make sense of information better than ever before. This second edition has been revised and updated throughout and includes a new chapter on the description and modelling of individual health care costs, thus broadening the book’s readership to those working on risk adjustment and health technology appraisal. The text also fully reflects the very latest advances in the health economics field and the key journal literature. Large-scale survey datasets, in particular complex survey designs such as panel data, provide a rich source of information for health economists. They offer the scope to control for individual heterogeneity and to model the dynamics of individual behaviour. However, the measures of outcome used in health economics are often qualitative or categorical. These create special problems for estimating econometric models. The dramatic growth in computing power over recent years has been accompanied by the development of methods that help to solve these problems. The purpose of this book is to provide a practical guide to the skills required to put these techniques into practice. Practical applications of the methods are illustrated using data on health from the British Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS), the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), the US Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). There is a strong emphasis on applied work, illustrating the use of relevant computer software with code provided for Stata. Familiarity with the basic syntax and structure of Stata is assumed. The Stata code and extracts from the statistical output are embedded directly in the main text and explained at regular intervals. The book is built around empirical case studies, rather than general theory, and the emphasis is on learning by example. It presents a detailed dissection of methods and results of some recent research papers written by the authors and their colleagues. Relevant methods are presented alongside the Stata code that can be used to implement them and the empirical results are discussed at each stage. This text brings together the theory and application of health economics and econometrics, and will be a valuable reference for applied economists and students of health economics and applied econometrics.

Vols. for 1963- include as pt. 2 of the Jan. issue: Medical subject headings.

In this book the authors explore the state of the art on efficiency measurement in health systems and international experts offer insights into the pitfalls and potential associated with various measurement techniques. The authors show that: - The core idea of efficiency is easy to understand in principle - maximizing valued outputs relative to inputs, but is often difficult to make operational in real-life situations - There have been numerous advances in data collection and availability, as well as innovative methodological approaches that give valuable insights into how efficiently health care is delivered - Our simple analytical framework can facilitate the development and interpretation of efficiency indicators.

"Today Singapore ranks sixth in the world in healthcare outcomes well ahead of many developed countries, including the United States. The results are all the more significant as Singapore spends less on healthcare than any other high-income country, both as measured by fraction of the Gross Domestic Product spent on health and by costs per person. Singapore achieves these results at less than one-fourth the cost of healthcare in the United States and about half that of Western European countries. Government leaders, presidents and prime ministers, finance ministers and ministers of health, policymakers in congress and parliament, public health officials responsible for healthcare systems planning, finance and operations, as well as those working on healthcare issues in universities and think-tanks should know how this system works to achieve affordable excellence."--Publisher's website.

"[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.