Insurance coverage and proximity to health care centers factor into health-related inequalities in Rwanda

Harvard Pop Center faculty member Chunling Lu, PhD, is co-author on a study that has found that poverty status is not the only significant contributing factor to the inequalities in medical care utilization and household catastrophic spending that exist in Rwanda. Photo: Julien Harneis on Flickr

Do higher health insurance deductibles really turn patients into smarter consumers?

In this New York Times piece “The Big Problem With High Health Care Deductibles” Amitabh Chandra, PhD, a Harvard Pop Center faculty and executive committee member, shares his thoughts on why he is no longer convinced that high-deductible health care plans are effective at converting patients into discerning consumers. Chandra’s insights were gleaned from this recent working paper.