Healthcare Reform: An Economist’s Perspective

Host: Jack Lewin, MD Guest: Uwe Reinhardt, PhD In a recent survey tracked by Dr. Uwe Reinhardt, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, Medicare patients in northern New Jersey accrued three times the medical costs in their last two years of life as patients in the southern half of the state. Save for seismic demographic differences, Dr. Reinhardt explains how our current system produces these staggering billing disparities. How could a peer-review mechanism stem the tide of clinical ‘cost-ineffectiveness' and concurrently improve quality assurance in American healthcare? Dr. Jack Lewin hosts.