scholarly journals Indemnifying precaution: economic insights for regulation of a highly infectious disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher T Robertson ◽  
K Aleks Schaefer ◽  
Daniel Scheitrum ◽  
Sergio Puig ◽  
Keith Joiner
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Moral Hazard ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Deterrence Theory ◽  
Legal Intervention ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Personal Risk ◽  
Personal Costs

Abstract Economic insights are powerful for understanding the challenge of managing a highly infectious disease, such as COVID-19, through behavioral precautions including social distancing. One problem is a form of moral hazard, which arises when some individuals face less personal risk of harm or bear greater personal costs of taking precautions. Without legal intervention, some individuals will see socially risky behaviors as personally less costly than socially beneficial behaviors, a balance that makes those beneficial behaviors unsustainable. For insights, we review health insurance moral hazard, agricultural infectious disease policy, and deterrence theory, but find that classic enforcement strategies of punishing noncompliant people are stymied. One mechanism is for policymakers to indemnify individuals for losses associated with taking those socially desirable behaviors to reduce the spread. We develop a coherent approach for doing so, based on conditional cash payments and precommitments by citizens, which may also be reinforced by social norms.

scholarly journals Personality in a pandemic: Social norms moderate associations between personality and social distancing behaviors

2021 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
pp. 110828
Author(s):  
Steven G. Ludeke ◽  
Joseph A. Vitriol ◽  
Erik Gahner Larsen ◽  
Miriam Gensowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Distancing

scholarly journals The effect of social distancing on the reach of an epidemic in social networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Gutin ◽  
Tomohiro Hirano ◽  
Sung-Ha Hwang ◽  
Philip R. Neary ◽  
Alexis Akira Toda
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Monte Carlo Simulation ◽  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The Public ◽  
Simulation Results

AbstractHow does social distancing affect the reach of an epidemic in social networks? We present Monte Carlo simulation results of a susceptible–infected–removed with social distancing model. The key feature of the model is that individuals are limited in the number of acquaintances that they can interact with, thereby constraining disease transmission to an infectious subnetwork of the original social network. While increased social distancing typically reduces the spread of an infectious disease, the magnitude varies greatly depending on the topology of the network, indicating the need for policies that are network dependent. Our results also reveal the importance of coordinating policies at the ‘global’ level. In particular, the public health benefits from social distancing to a group (e.g. a country) may be completely undone if that group maintains connections with outside groups that are not following suit.

The Ethical Issues Raised in Health Care Debates

2019 ◽  
pp. 54-80
Author(s):  
Alex Rajczi
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Universal Health Insurance ◽  
Substantial Evidence ◽  
Personal Cost ◽  
Fiscal Risk ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
Personal Costs ◽  
Universal Health

This book will ask whether universal health insurance systems are objectionable on the ground that they are inefficacious, fiscally risky, or require that individuals bear excessive personal costs. These issues are of serious philosophical interest, but there is also substantial evidence that opinions about fiscal risk, efficacy, and personal cost drive many Americans’ actual views on health care. This chapter surveys the polling data about these issues. The end of the chapter discusses the limitations of this evidence as well as alternative hypotheses about the drivers of the health care debate.

scholarly journals Leveraging Health Department Capacities, Partnerships, and Health Insurance for Infectious Disease Response in Massachusetts, 2014-2018

2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 75S-81S
Author(s):  
H. Dawn Fukuda ◽  
Liisa M. Randall ◽  
Thera Meehan ◽  
Kevin Cranston
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Viral Hepatitis ◽  
Public Health Laboratory ◽  
Health Programs ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Public Health Programs ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Response

Policies facilitating integration of public health programs can improve the public health response, but the literature on approaches to integration across multiple system levels is limited. We describe the efforts of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to integrate its HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infection (STI), and tuberculosis response through policies that mandated contracted organizations to submit specimens for testing to the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory; co-test blood specimens for HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and syphilis; integrate HIV, viral hepatitis, and STI disease surveillance and case management in a single data system; and implement an integrated infectious disease drug assistance program. From 2014 through 2018, the number of tests performed by the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory increased from 16 321 to 33 674 for HIV, from 11 054 to 33 670 for HCV, and from 19 169 to 30 830 for syphilis. Service contracts enabled rapid response to outbreaks of HIV, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B. Key challenges included lack of a billing infrastructure at the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory; the need to complete negotiations with insurers and to establish a retained revenue account to receive health insurance reimbursements for testing services; and time to train testing providers in phlebotomy for required testing. Investing in laboratory infrastructure; creating billing mechanisms to maximize health insurance reimbursement; proactively engaging providers, community members, and other stakeholders; and building capacity to transform practices are needed. Using multilevel policy approaches to integrate the public health response to HIV, STI, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis is feasible and adaptable to other public health programs.

scholarly journals Self-selection and moral hazard in Chilean health insurance

2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Sapelli ◽  
Bernardita Vial
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Moral Hazard ◽  
Self Selection
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