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Mark V. Pauly

What I Do

Professor of Health Care Management, Business Economics and Public Policy at The Wharton School

My Background

Mark V. Pauly is Bendheim Professor in the Department of Health Care Management, Professor of Health Care Management, and Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at The Wharton School, and Professor of Economics in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He co-founded the Roy and Diana Vagelos Life Sciences and Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005, and has served as Faculty Co-Director since its inception. Dr. Pauly received the Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia. One of the nation’s leading health economists, he has made significant contributions to the fields of medical economics and health insurance. His classic study on the economics of moral hazard was the first to point out how health insurance coverage may affect patients’ use of medical services. A former commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Commission, Dr. Pauly has served on the advisory committee to the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality and the Medicare Technical Advisory Panel. He recently served on the National Advisory Council for the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources, and is the newly elected President of the American Society of Health Economists. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics, an associate editor of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, and Co-Editor of the Handbook of Health Economics, Volume 2 (published in 2012 by Elsevier). Dr. Pauly was awarded the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research from the Baxter International Foundation and the Association of University Programs in Health Administration in 2012. He is also the 2011-2012 recipient of the University of Pennsylvania Provost’s Award for Distinguished Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring, and the 2012 recipient of the Victor R. Fuchs Lifetime Achievement Award from ASHEcon.

Is pharma getting greedier?

There has been considerable consumer and policymaker concern about the rising prices of some prescription drugs, from the thousands-percent increases in the price of generics like Turing Pharmaceuticals' Daraprim to the average 8.8% increase by Pfizer for a large sample of its brand name drugs. Putting aside appeals by brand name firms for the need for funding for research and development (which does not apply to generics), the most attractive explanation for why brand nme drug makers can increase prices is because they can.

Mark V. Pauly 

Why Medicaid work requirements could help persuade more states to expand coverage

Millions of adult Americans who are under 65, not disabled, and have incomes near the poverty line do not have access to health insurance. Nevertheless, 19 states (Pennsylvania excluded, but Maine so far included) have not yet decided to participate in Obamacare's Medicaid expansion, despite the incentive of large federal matching payments. Those who remain uninsured in these states make up much of the remaining 10 - 15% of the population without coverage. Consequences of being uninsured, like financial distress and lower rates of use of medical care, have been documented for them. What, many of us in states that have implemented the expansion ask, is holding up the parade?

Mark V. Pauly