Subnational Variations in Healthcare Infrastructure

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

The papers on this panel all explore subnational variations in health care regulation and funding. Bayerlein explores sub-national disparities in mortality in EU member states during the COVID-19 pandemic and the connection of these disparities to regional medical infrastructure. Kim uses Covid responses in two Chinese cities, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, which share significant socioeconomic and cultural similarities but are substantially different in terms of political and bureaucratic structures, to demonstrate how variation in outbreak responses depends critically on the institutional features of social control and social inclusion present in different parts of the country. Moraguez considers the role of the US federal government’s data collection practices in variations in public health responses at the state and local level, focusing on the impacts that inaccuracy in the US decennial census impacts allocation of federal dollars to state and local governments for healthcare services, disaster relief, and public heath responses. Burke and Friedman-Bell explore the use of rate-setting as a cost control mechanism in Maryland. Outside of the US, this straightforward approach for controlling healthcare costs is used commonly, but in the US, only 2 states have retained hospital rate-setting, and Maryland has over time greatly expanded its role as regulator of health care costs. The authors show how path dependence–and not some special feature of Maryland health care politics–facilitate this unique (to the US) approach to regulating health care costs.

Sub Unit

• Division 48: Health Politics & Health Policy

Individual Presentations

• An Ever-Healthier Union? EU Funds as a Means of Expanding the Health Union - Michael Bayerlein, Charité University Hospital

• Counting & Crisis: How the US Census Affects Local Public Health Responses - Ashley Moraguez, University of North Carolina, Asheville

• State Structures and Interventions for COVID-19 Outbreaks - Elvis H Kim, University of West Florida

Chair

• Andrew S. Kelly California State University, East Bay

Discussants

• Simon F. Haeder Texas A&M University

• Steven M. Sylvester Utah Valley University