1. Please answer the following questions regarding the physician assistant debate:

• Many have argued that primary care doctors are given too much responsibility regarding direct patient care. The argument has been made that nurse practitioners and physician assistants should be utilized more effectively. What are your thoughts on this?
• Physician assistants have long argued that they have the ability to provide as much as 70 percent of the medical services provided by primary care physicians at a much lower cost. Yet government regulations limit their ability to work independently of physicians. Explain what would happen to the level of competition in the physician services market if all the statutes limiting activities of physician assistants were eliminated.

2.

Please answer the following questions regarding cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and the perfect health care system.

• Give an original example of a situation in which cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-utility analysis would give you contrary results. Substantiate your answer.
• Suppose you had the opportunity to organize the perfect healthcare system. Explain how you would organize the financing method, reimbursement method, mode of production, and physician referral procedure.

3.

Please answer the following questions regarding global health and health care reform:

• Why is it so difficult to determine which country has the best health system? Describe the empirical issues related to evaluation of the systems as well as possible ways to overcome these difficulties. If you had to choose one, which country do you think has the best health system? Use course concepts to support your answer.
• Is death an enemy that is to be fought off at all costs or is it a condition of life that is to be accepted? How does the way we answer this question affect the kind of healthcare system we might embrace?