Health Economics

Do free prescription drugs change behavior?

Evidence from Poland shows that removing out-of-pocket costs increased prescription use and reduced financial burden, with limited signs of offsetting overuse.

tinyurl.com/yc4fdprc

🚨 New Issue Alert 🚨

The March 2026 issue of Health Economics explores how policy, institutions, and early-life conditions shape health over the life course—from primary care access and income gradients to pandemics, tax credits, and intergenerational effects.

tinyurl.com/4kvxpekb

New research from Kenya: Giving a mother just 1 extra year of education reduces her child’s risk of stunting by 3.8% and underweight by 2.6%. 📚🇰🇪

It’s not just a correlation — it’s a causal "intergenerational lift." 📈

tinyurl.com/3bu4f825

Expanding prescription drug coverage can reduce severe antimicrobial resistance.

New research shows Medicare Part D led to 42.4 fewer AMR-related hospitalizations per 100k people. 📉

Improved access = timely treatment = fewer severe infections.

tinyurl.com/mrx9tmv8

Public investment in global health research can pay off — locally.

New evidence shows that returning African scientists trained through @NIH programs boost HIV research, grants, trials, and policy impact at home.

tinyurl.com/259rxc3t

🚨 New Research: Confinement during the pandemic was a major factor in Japan’s rising female suicide rates.

📉 Study shows ~35% of suicides among females <20 were linked to staying at home.

We must prioritize social connection in future public health plans. tinyurl.com/3d2d3hm4

How do insurers respond when patients face multiple health risks? Evidence from Chile’s private health system shows strong asymmetric information across risks, shaping premiums, plan design, and who gets covered.

Risk selection is more complex than we think. tinyurl.com/26s93chm

Is European health progress truly "fair"? 🌍

New data shows income-based health looks progressive, but when you factor in parental background and job status, the trend reverses. 📉

🏥 Italy leads in favorable dynamics. 🚻 Women lead in IT/DE; men in FI.

tinyurl.com/yj8wh4vw

Spending $1 on fossil fuel subsidies can cost $0.35 in public health funding. 💸🏥

A new 126-country study reveals how these subsidies "crowd out" health budgets, stalling progress on #SDG3.

The choice: cheap fuel or healthy people? 🌍

tinyurl.com/36ec52z5

China’s Zero-Markup Drug Policy reshaped prescribing incentives.

New evidence shows doctors’ choices respond far more to hospital profit margins than patient prices—cutting costs and improving patient welfare.

tinyurl.com/5yxymscm

Disability insurance doesn’t always replace work. Evidence from Italy shows that when benefits can be combined with earnings, higher DI generosity raises take-up but has only minor effects on employment.

DI can function as a complement to labor income. tinyurl.com/2ewarya5

A new study finds that early exposure to the Child & Dependent Care Tax Credit shapes later child health in different ways across families.

The reason isn’t the credit itself — it’s how families adjust childcare arrangements when policy nudges their options.

tinyurl.com/4fh57v6z

New research from Germany shows that regular grandparental care boosts parents’ well-being — especially mothers — but comes with a small trade-off: children cared for by grandparents show slightly poorer health outcomes.

A real-world care puzzle.

tinyurl.com/3rrhfnkv

Does free insurance improve access? Evidence from France says yes.

A study of a means-tested complementary insurance program shows that lowering out-of-pocket costs boosts care use among low-income patients.

tinyurl.com/yyp5ra95

A new study shows that stronger labor market policies improve maternal mental health before pregnancy.

A $1 rise in the minimum wage cuts pre-pregnancy depression by 8.5%, and a $100 increase in the state EITC lowers it by 1.5%.

Income support matters early. tinyurl.com/45ntn6rn

New evidence shows that growing up in families receiving larger Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) benefits reduces work disability in adulthood.

Long-term income support does more than fight poverty — it shapes lifelong health.

tinyurl.com/4ww5hjtr

Health Economics Volume 35, Issue 1 is out.

The cover looks calm. The papers inside are anything but — sharp methods, tough questions, and a few results that challenge conventional wisdom.

Don't judge a journal by its cover — even when it looks this good!

tinyurl.com/4kvxpekb

A new study shows why preterm birth and low birth weight should be analyzed together, not separately. Using a copula-based model, the authors reveal strong joint risks and clear geographic and maternal factors that shape them.

Better tools, better targeting.

tinyurl.com/bp5ypwzk

In-utero exposure to COVID medical-procedure delay orders raised the likelihood of an adverse birth-outcome diagnosis by 13% (from a 6% baseline) and pushed prenatal care toward telehealth.

Delaying “non-urgent” pregnancy care has real costs.

tinyurl.com/5rtuy5y7

China’s 2006 campaign against a major parasitic infection dramatically improved more than health. Children exposed in utero later had fewer outpatient visits, better nutrition, and stronger school outcomes.

Fighting neglected diseases builds human capital.

tinyurl.com/ycx3r45f

5/
The catch: scale improves total appointment capacity, but not necessarily speed.
Larger practices generate more care, yet the share of “timely” appointments falls slightly as size increases.

Bottom line: scale expands access, but doesn’t solve waits.

4/
Skill-mix matters too. Cost-optimal staffing ratios require more nurses and DPC staff than practices currently employ. Nurses in particular deliver high appointment volumes at relatively low cost.

Small practices simply can’t unlock this productivity.

3/
And the productivity advantage grows with size.
Across outputs (total appointments, GP slots, timely 2-day access), marginal returns rise sharply at the 75th percentile of practice size.

Scale isn’t just about volume; it amplifies each added worker’s impact.

2/
The study models how practices convert staff into appointments. The punchline: bigger practices squeeze more appointments out of every additional clinician.
At median admin staffing, 1 extra GP → +223 appointments/month. 1 extra nurse/DPC → +152.

1/
Primary care is drowning in demand. Policymakers keep pushing “scale” as the fix. But does scaling up actually produce more care? New evidence from 6,149 GP practices in England gives a rare, data-driven answer. tinyurl.com/mpbmvbd2

🧵 👇

Income–Well‐Being Gradient in Sickness and Health We propose a method for studying the value of insurance. For this purpose, we analyze the well-being of the same individuals, comparing sick and healthy years, using German panel survey data on life…

New evidence from Germany shows that income matters more for well-being when people are sick. The marginal utility of income rises in sickness, implying insurance is more valuable than standard models assume. Sickness has a real “fixed cost.”

Argentina’s zero-tolerance drunk-driving laws didn’t deliver. A new study finds no drop in traffic deaths and higher injury rates after adoption, with little change in drinking behavior. Tough rules didn’t shift the risks that matter.

Policy intent ≠ policy impact. tinyurl.com/7dkxbbw9

Most health studies model doctor and non-doctor visits separately. This paper shows why that misses the point: the two are tightly linked, driven by shared behaviors and unobserved traits.

Joint modeling reveals who actually uses care—and how.

👉 tinyurl.com/5e7zanfu

New US claims data show a sharp ⬇️ in children’s asthma medication adherence during COVID — especially among the youngest children.

Evidence points to parental attention as a key driver. Mail-order refills softened the decline.

tinyurl.com/2mv5a85d

A nationwide study of maternity ward closures in Norway finds no evidence of worse infant or maternal health and no long-term harm.

Centralization changed where people deliver, not how well they do.

tinyurl.com/yaja53p4