AEI Press

Innovation and technology adoption in health care markets.

Jena (health economics, RAND Corporation) and Philipson (public policy, U. of Chicago) argue that cost-effective approaches to health care programs discourage innovation among medical companies since profits are minimized. In this relatively brief book, the authors maintain that policymakers should provide additional incentives for these companies in order to fund further research and development, and that cost-cutting measures may improve the bottom line in a short-term analysis but will ultimately lower the quality of health care in the long run. Written for health care professionals, this book offers useful appendices that provide survival rates for AIDS as well as mathematical formulas used to calculate surplus appropriation and cost-effectiveness under Constant-Elasticity Demand. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

When altruism isn't enough; the case for compensating kidney donors.

Satel, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has edited these articles on the organ shortage in the United States and how the government and the medical industry cannot depend upon altruism to meet transplant needs. Contributors analyze the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) that prohibits the sale of organs and determine that financial compensation is the only way to meet these demands and end human suffering. Written for policymakers, health care professionals and anyone whose life is affected by organ transplants, this book provides explicit details for new programs that would allow states and federal agencies to implement these incentives and ensure donor safety. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)