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Distributed November 19, 2004
Contact Mary Jo Curtis

Mark V. Pauly, professor of economics, health care systems, business and public policy, insurance and risk management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, will discuss “Shooting Ourselves in the Foot? Employers and Health Benefits for Workers and Retirees” Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2004, at 5 p.m. in MacMillan Hall. This event, free and open to the public, is the annual Paul Levinger Professorship Pro Tem in the Economics of Health Care Lecture.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Facing rising health care premiums for active workers and retirees, today’s employers find themselves struggling to find the right balance between controlling benefits costs and remaining competitive in attracting and retaining employees.

Mark V. Pauly, professor of economics, health care systems, business and public policy, insurance and risk management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, will explore this dilemma in a lecture titled “Shooting Ourselves in the Foot? Employers and Health Benefits for Workers and Retirees.” Pauly’s presentation, the annual Paul Levinger Professorship Pro Tem in the Economics of Health Care Lecture, will be given at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2004, in Starr Auditorium, MacMillan Hall.

One of the nation's leading health care economists, Pauly has contributed to the field through research in areas ranging from insurance coverage to prescription drug benefits.

“Employers should be cautious about responding too reflexively to higher benefits costs, and they need to take worker values into account in deciding what to do,” says Pauly.

In his presentation Pauly will discuss:

• How increase in health care premiums in large part pay for improved quality in medical care;
• How employers should make the tradeoff between controlling benefits costs and reducing valuable benefits that help them attract and retain workers;
• Whether making cuts will doing so do more harm than good;
• Whether higher medical costs for higher quality care help or harm the competitiveness of American firms; and  
• What cuts mean for retirees relative to active workers, especially in view of the availability of coverage for drugs under Medicare.  

Mark V. Pauly

Mark V. Pauly, the Wharton School's Bendheim Professor, is a former commissioner of the Medicare Physician Payment Advisory Commission and a former member of the National Advisory Council of the DHHS's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He also serves on the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Evaluation of Vaccine Purchase Financing in the United States. He has authored numerous studies and serves as co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics. He has delivered congressional testimony on topics related to the current health care crisis and has served as a consultant to hospital markets, pharmaceutical companies and public policy organizations.

Pauly is currently exploring the analysis of health reform, conceptual foundations for cost-benefit analysis of drugs, and incentives in managed care.

The Levinger Lecture

The Paul Levinger Professorship Pro Tem in the Economics of Health Care was endowed in 1987 to honor the memory of Paul Levinger by his wife, the late Ruth Levinger, and his daughter and son-in-law, Bette Levinger Cohen and John M. Cohen '59, M.D. Past Levinger Lecturers include Stuart H. Altman, Eli Ginzberg, David A. Kessler, M.D., Jack W. Rowe, M.D., Uwe Reinhart, and Drew Altman, a member of Brown’s Class of 1974.

This lecture is free and open to the public. MacMillan Hall is located at 167 Thayer St. For more information, call (401) 863-3232.

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