New studies are estimating spending on COVID-19
In a new report published by the Brookings Institution, Matthew Fiedler, a fellow in economic studies at the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, and Zirui Song, M.D. ’10, Ph.D. ’12, assistant professor of health care policy in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, estimate national health care spending for COVID-19 care and discuss its policy implications. The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care spending are important for providers, payers, and policymakers, the researchers said. As a nation, direct health care spending on the pandemic critically depends on infection and hospitalization rates, in addition to the prices and quantities of health care services, they said, adding that the magnitude of this spending has implications for federal policy and state budgets. Projecting COVID-19 spending can be challenging, as the dynamics of disease transmission and population behavior remain uncertain. Thus, Fiedler and Song consider multiple scenarios, including one in which infections...