Economics and Mental Health

Book excerpt: How do health insurance regulations affect the care of person with mental illness? And how do such persons, in turn, affect the economy through lost productivity, reduced labor supply, and deviant behavior at the workplace? In Economics and Mental Health, Richard G. Frank and Willard G. Manning Jr., bring to gether a distinguished group of health care economists to explore the new and rapidly growing feild of mental health economics. The authors begin by dicsussing the issue of care for severely mentally ill patients as it is influenced by differing modes of reimbursement. They then offer labor market analyses that shed light on the economic costs of mental illness. They analyse the interaction of health insurance and the demand for mental health care. And they present case studies that outline experimental systems of delivering health care.