Research Library

Health care providers add multiple processes to the care of complex cancer patients, believing they prevent and/or ameliorate complications. However, the relationship between these processes, complication remediation, and expenditures is unknown.

In this commentary, the authors examine the roots of the United States’ reluctance to embrace universal health care, concluding that it "is neither sound nor ethical in a nation that promulgates fairness and equal opportunity" to deny coverage.

While the recent fiscal troubles in Greece have received much attention, the U.S. fiscal position is hardly comparable to that of Greece. However, the United States is experiencing, and will continue to experience, one of the fundamental economic costs of relatively large and persistent deficits.

The Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 ruling on the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case Monday, allowing some for-profit companies to opt out of paying for certain contraceptives for their employees. Elena Marks, president and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation and Baker Institute nonresident fellow in health policy, offered her insights on the ruling and how it will impact implementation of the Affordable Care Act, women’s access to reproductive care and future court cases.

Cancer drug shortages are almost uniquely associated with generic drugs (small profit margins) and rarely with patented drugs (large profit margins). They are common in the U.S., but uncommon in Europe and elsewhere, where generic drug prices are on average higher than in the U.S. This suggests the main cause of drug shortages is economic.

In this issue brief, Rice University's Baker Institute and The Episcopal Health Foundation ask, "Were Texans satisfied with the cost of health care and health insurance prior to the Affordable Care Act?" By Vivian Ho, Ph.D.; Elena M. Marks, J.D., M.P.H.; and Patricia Gail Bray, Ph.D.

Baker Institute health policy experts Hagop M. Kantarjian and Vivian Ho explain why Texas, which holds the notorious record of the highest rate of uninsured citizens in the U.S., should follow many Republican-led states that are now reconsidering the Medicaid expansion program under Obamacare.

Many contemporary medical ethicists dismiss the centuries-old Hippocratic Oath as outdated because of the enormous scientific, social, economic, and political changes since Hippocrates' time. Health policy scholar Hagop Kantarjian makes a case for its relevance.

Errors in surgical care for cancer patients may seem infrequent, but the costs associated with them are extremely high.

The technical problems plaguing the health exchange roll-out came without warning, and health policy scholar Elena Marks, an advocate of health care reform, is not happy about it. Read her Oct. 25, 2013, blog.