IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ntj/journl/v60y2007i3p407-18.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can America Afford to Get Sick?

Author

Listed:
  • Schwabish, Jonathan A.
  • Topoleski, Julie
  • Tristao, Ignez

Abstract

Long–term federal outlays for Medicare and Medicaid are projected to increase in the future because of the interaction between demographics and program eligibility. However, the magnitude of the projected increase depends almost entirely on the assumption about "excess cost growth." This growth factor is an unexplained residual—the gap between growth in per–beneficiary program outlays and growth in GDP per capita not explained by demographics alone. In the last several decades, excess cost has been positive and significant on average, though the annual pattern is volatile. This paper considers the implications of alternative assumptions about excess cost growth for federal budget and tax policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Schwabish, Jonathan A. & Topoleski, Julie & Tristao, Ignez, 2007. "Can America Afford to Get Sick?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 60(3), pages 407-418, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:60:y:2007:i:3:p:407-18
    DOI: 10.17310/ntj.2007.3.04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2007.3.04
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2007.3.04
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17310/ntj.2007.3.04?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:60:y:2007:i:3:p:407-18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The University of Chicago Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ntanet.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.