Health Economics: Scientific Expertise and Policymaking

This paper investigates the ways in which evidence about the U.S. healthcare system has been produced, evaluated, and translated into healthcare policy. The main argument of this essay is that there was a shift in the dominant mode of influence of economics. Where through the 1960s the central influ...

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Main Author: Matthew Panhans
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Œconomia 2018-09-01
Series:Œconomia
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/3091
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author Matthew Panhans
author_facet Matthew Panhans
author_sort Matthew Panhans
collection DOAJ
description This paper investigates the ways in which evidence about the U.S. healthcare system has been produced, evaluated, and translated into healthcare policy. The main argument of this essay is that there was a shift in the dominant mode of influence of economics. Where through the 1960s the central influence was of particular economists appointment to committees or advisory positions, this was replaced by the increasing importance of the cognitive infrastructure provided by the field of health economics by the 1990s which provided an “economic way of thinking” about healthcare policy. This case study provides a broader exploration into how scientific expert advice becomes operationalized in society, which in the case of health policy in the U.S., has remained salient up to the present with the recent passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
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spelling doaj.art-c36da92158b14110b85da3313b34a4852022-12-22T03:43:27ZengAssociation ŒconomiaŒconomia2113-52072269-84502018-09-018327931110.4000/oeconomia.3091Health Economics: Scientific Expertise and PolicymakingMatthew PanhansThis paper investigates the ways in which evidence about the U.S. healthcare system has been produced, evaluated, and translated into healthcare policy. The main argument of this essay is that there was a shift in the dominant mode of influence of economics. Where through the 1960s the central influence was of particular economists appointment to committees or advisory positions, this was replaced by the increasing importance of the cognitive infrastructure provided by the field of health economics by the 1990s which provided an “economic way of thinking” about healthcare policy. This case study provides a broader exploration into how scientific expert advice becomes operationalized in society, which in the case of health policy in the U.S., has remained salient up to the present with the recent passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.http://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/3091health economicsapplied economicspublic policy
spellingShingle Matthew Panhans
Health Economics: Scientific Expertise and Policymaking
Œconomia
health economics
applied economics
public policy
title Health Economics: Scientific Expertise and Policymaking
title_full Health Economics: Scientific Expertise and Policymaking
title_fullStr Health Economics: Scientific Expertise and Policymaking
title_full_unstemmed Health Economics: Scientific Expertise and Policymaking
title_short Health Economics: Scientific Expertise and Policymaking
title_sort health economics scientific expertise and policymaking
topic health economics
applied economics
public policy
url http://journals.openedition.org/oeconomia/3091
work_keys_str_mv AT matthewpanhans healtheconomicsscientificexpertiseandpolicymaking