Stanford University

Health and Medicine

FSI’s researchers assess health and medicine through the lenses of economics, nutrition and politics. They’re studying and influencing public health policies of local and national governments and the roles that corporations and nongovernmental organizations play in providing health care around the world. Scholars look at how governance affects citizens’ health, how children’s health care access affects the aging process and how to improve children’s health in Guatemala and rural China. They want to know what it will take for people to cook more safely and breathe more easily in developing countries.

FSI professors investigate how lifestyles affect health. What good does gardening do for older Americans? What are the benefits of eating organic food or growing genetically modified rice in China? They study cost-effectiveness by examining programs like those aimed at preventing the spread of tuberculosis in Russian prisons. Policies that impact obesity and undernutrition are examined; as are the public health implications of limiting salt in processed foods and the role of smoking among men who work in Chinese factories. FSI health research looks at sweeping domestic policies like the Affordable Care Act and the role of foreign aid in affecting the price of HIV drugs in Africa.

Center invites applications for newly established post-doctoral fellowship in comparative health policy

Authors
Karen Eggleston
News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs
Stanford University's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center is pleased to announce the establishment of a postdoctoral fellowship in comparative health policy for the 2008-09 academic year. The fellowship will support a junior scholar who will conduct research and writing on contemporary health or healthcare in two or more countries of the Asia-Pacific. We welcome applications from scholars from a variety of disciplines, such as sociology, political science, economics, anthropology, public policy, law, health services research and related fields.
All News button
1

Healthcare Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe: Overview and Possible Implications for China

Paragraphs

This article focuses on the healthcare system reforms in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the past decade. The first section provides an overview of healthcare financing, social insurance frameworks, and the public/private mix in service delivery. The second section discusses four reform challenges in CEE that are perhaps also relevant for China:

  1. subsidizing the supply side or demand side (that is, a national health service Beveridge model vs. Bismarckian social insurance);
  2. establishing a single payer or insurance competition;
  3. confronting the legacy of soft budget constraints; and
  4. provider payment reforms.

A brief conclusion uses the lens of current health policy controversies in Hungary to highlight some of the trade-offs implicit in the complex political economy of health system reforms.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Journal Articles
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
Bijiao (Comparative Studies)
Authors
Karen Eggleston
External URL

Health Service Delivery in China: A Literature Review

Paragraphs

We report the results of a review of the Chinese- and English-language literatures on service delivery in China, asking how well China's health-care providers perform and what determines their performance. Although data and methodological limitations suggest caution in drawing conclusions, a critical reading of the available evidence suggests that current health service delivery in China leaves room for improvement, in terms of quality, responsiveness to patients, efficiency, cost escalation, and equity. The literature suggests that these problems will not be solved by simply shifting ownership to the private sector or by simply encouraging providers - public and private - to compete with one another for individual patients. By contrast, substantial improvements could be (and in some places have already been) made by changing the way providers are paid - shifting away from fee-for-service and the distorted price schedule. Other elements of active purchasing by insurers could further improve outcomes. Rigorous evaluations, based on richer micro-level data, could considerably strengthen the evidence base for service delivery policy in China.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Journal Articles
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
Health Economics
Authors
Karen Eggleston
External URL

The Link between Migration and Health: A Longitudinal Analysis in Indonesia, and A New National Survey on Migration and Health in China

-

Migration and health are two areas that have each received significant amounts of attention in sociology. However, only recently have researchers begun to examine the links between these two population processes. There is growing yet incomplete evidence that migration and the health are intertwined in complex ways. Health itself can impact the decision to move, and migration may affect the health of those who move, those who stay, and those who host migrants. Using high quality longitudinal data from Indonesia, Lu's research makes a serious attempt to tackle important questions about the association between migration and health in the Indonesian context. In particular, she examines both how health may affect migration decisions, and how changing socioeconomic conditions associated with migration may have implications for the health of various populations involved, including not only migrants but also people left behind in sending communities. Lu will also discuss research underway on migration and health in China, including a new national survey with data to study that topic in the Chinese context.

Yao Lu is a Ph.D. candidate of Sociology, M.S. candidate of Public Health, and student affiliate at the California Center for Population Research at UCLA. She has a BS from Fudan University in China. Her research focuses on studying the causes and consequences of internal migration in developing countries, and modeling socioeconomic and behavioral factors as determinants of health. Her papers include studies based on data from China, Indonesia, and South Africa. She has a paper forthcoming in the American Sociological Review, and has received dissertation fellowships from the AAUW foundation and the Asia Institute at UCLA. She is currently completing her dissertation on the relationship between labor migration and health in Indonesia, while working on a national survey project on internal migration and health in China.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Yao Lu PhD candidate in Sociology Speaker University of California-Los Angeles
Seminars

Economic Consequences of Population Aging in Asia

-

Dr. Lee currently holds the Edward G. and Nancy S. Jordan Endowed Chair in Economics and is a professor in the Department of Demography at University of California - Berkeley (Berkeley). He has taught courses in economic demography, population theory, population and economic development, demographic forecasting, population aging, indirect estimation, and research design, as well as a number of pro-seminars.

Professor Lee is also the director of the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging at Berkeley, funded by the National Institute of Aging. His current research includes including modeling and forecasting demographic time series, the evolutionary theory of life histories, population aging, Social Security, and intergenerational transfers.

He has received several honors, including Presidency of the Population Association of America, the Mindel C. Sheps Award for research in mathematical demography, the PAA Irene B. Taeuber Award for outstanding contributions in the field of demography. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Corresponding member of the British Academy. He has chaired the population and social science study section for NIH and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Population, and served on the National Advisory Committee on Aging (NIA Council).

Professor Lee holds an MA in demography from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.

Philippines Conference Room

Ronald Lee Director of the Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging Speaker University of California - Berkeley
Seminars

Global Tobacco Prevention Research Initiative

Cigarettes are producing an unprecedented worldwide health catastrophe. Global traffic in cigarettes has tripled in the last fifty years, in large part because governments have become addicted to tobacco taxes, international trade agencies have promoted tobacco sales, and marketers have devised ever more deceptive tactics. Meanwhile, tobacco-induced diseases are besieging local communities around the world. Whether in China, Brazil or Morocco, families are emptying bank accounts, often in vain, to treat smoking-caused illnesses, and then struggling with the shards of broken futures.

Healthcare Payment Incentives: A Comparative Analysis of Reforms in Taiwan, South Korea and China

Paragraphs

Payment incentives have significant consequences for the equity and efficiency of a health care system, and have recently come to the fore in health policy reforms. This paper first discusses the economic rationale for apparent international convergence toward payment systems with mixed demand and supply-side cost sharing. We then summarize the recent payment reforms undertaken in Taiwan, Korea and China. Available evidence clearly indicates that incentives matter, and that supply-side cost sharing in particular can improve efficiency without undermining equity. Further study and monitoring of quality and selection is warranted.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Journal Articles
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
Authors
Karen Eggleston
Subscribe to Health and Medicine