For the second consecutive year, the Economic Report of the President featured research by the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.
The report – released by the White House on March 10 – included research by Vivian Wu, assistant professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy, and Neeraj Sood, associate Professor at the USC School of Pharmacy, within the chapter on health care costs.
The Administration relied on analysis by Wu to suggest that reducing excessive Medicare payments may ultimately generate savings for private insurers and their consumers. Wu’s research, which appears on page 169 of the report, found that for each dollar of Medicare savings, private insurers realize additional savings of 55 cents.
In addition, it also examined two earlier studies by Sood, in a discussion on the relationship between employer-based health insurance premiums and employment rate. The Administration, on page 177 of the report, cited Sood’s findings that the Affordable Care Act will increase job growth by 250,000 – to reach 400,000 a year – by the second half of this decade.