Health Care for Us All

Health Care for Us All challenges the common belief that health care problems in the United States are difficult and possibly insoluble. Americans want to get more for their health care spending, including insurance coverage for all that is personal, portable, and permanent. They want a system that respects incentives for quality care, exhibits a responsible approach to the budget, and is sustainable. Health Care for Us All adopts these five objectives and applies an efficiency filter to identify the virtually unique framework that meets all objectives. Impediments to achieving Americans’ goals can be summarized under the rubrics of too little insurance, too little income, and too little properly functioning market. The efficient remedy for each is the subject of the book. Related philosophical as well as economic issues, such as why there should be government involvement in health care, are analyzed.

Author Biography

Earl L. Grinols has served as Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University since 2004. He previously taught at MIT, Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois. Professor Grinols worked as a research economist for the Department of the Treasury and as Senior Economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. He has extensively published in the fields of finance, public finance, international economics, and macroeconomics. He is the author of three previous books, including Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits (2004), also published by Cambridge University Press. He has testified before Congress and in numerous statehouses, and his work has been cited by leading newspapers and news outlets such as the Economist, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, the Financial Times, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Time, U.S. News and World Report, Washington Post, New York Times, and many others. James W. Henderson, who is Ben H. Williams Professor in Economics at Baylor University, received his Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University. He has taught at Baylor in Waco, Texas, since 1981. Professor Henderson’s health care research on diverse issues such as alternatives to pharmaceutical patents, cost effectiveness of cancer screening, availability of hospital services in rural areas, hospital location decisions, and the cost effectiveness of prenatal care has appeared in various journals, including Pharmacoeconomics, Health Care Financing Review, Journal of Rural Studies, Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, and the Journal of Regional Science. His current research includes examining the cost of state-level health insurance mandates. Professor Henderson’s textbook, Health Economics and Policy, is now in its fourth edition.