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Rashi Fein
rashi_fein@hms.harvard.edu

Rashi Fein is Professor of Medical Economics, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School, and co-author of The Health Care Mess; How We Got Into It and What It Will Take To Get Out, from the Harvard University Press.

 

Fein joined Harvard in 1968 and became Emeritus in 1990. Prior to that he was a Senior Fellow in the Economics Study Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington (1963-68), a member of the Senior Staff of President Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisors (1961-63), and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) (1952-61).  He served on the staff of President Truman’s Commission on the Health Needs of the Nation (1952).

 

Fein is a Charter Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Founding Member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

 

He is the author of numerous books and articles in the health field.  His first book was The Economics of Mental Illness, Basic Books (l958) and his two most recent volumes are Medical Care, Medical Costs: The Search for a Health Insurance Policy Harvard University Press (1986, 1989) and (with Julius Richmond MD) The Health Care Mess: How We Got Into It and What It Will Take To Get Out Harvard University Press (2005). His articles and book chapters include: “An Economic and Social Profile of the Negro American,” in The Negro American, Houghton Mifflin Company (1966); “On Measuring Economic Benefits of Health Programs,” in Medical History & Medical Care: A Symposium of Perspectives, Oxford University Press (1971); “Social and Economic Attitudes Shaping American Health Policy” in Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly Health and Society, (Summer 1980); “The HMO Revolution” in Dissent (spring and summer 1998).   

 

Contributions

Six key questions for Obama on health care reform
ASK THIS | February 06, 2009
There are some critical decisions that need to be made on the way to universal health care. Distinguished medical economist Rashi Fein wants to know if the new president is of the 'strike while the iron is hot' school – or the 'haste makes waste' school? Which does he think comes first: universal health care or cost containment? And four other questions.


'Sharing' is not what this administration is about
ASK THIS | February 26, 2007
Harvard scholar Rashi Fein writes that Bush’s health-care proposal would fragment groups that currently share risk – very much in keeping with Bush’s other attempts to take apart many of the societal protections that were erected by earlier administrations and respected by presidents of both parties.


Everyone out of the risk pool?
ASK THIS | January 19, 2006
Harvard scholar Rashi Fein suggests reporters explore whether Bush administration health care policies are accelerating the development of a multi-tier system of access to care. Fein is co-author of the new book, 'The Health Care Mess: How We Got Into It and What It Will Take To Get Out.'


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