Bio: Joan Costa-Font, Ph.D., M.Sc., a 2012-13 U.K. Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is a reader in the department of social policy, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he is also an associate at both LSE Health and Social Care and the Center for Economic Performance (CEP). Costa-Font has held teaching and/or research appointments at Oxford University, the University of Barcelona, the University of Munich and the Interamerican University in Mexico. In addition, he has been a World Bank and European Commission Consultant in health policy-related projects. His research covers a broad range of topics on the political economy of health and social protection, including aging and long term care insurance, health behavior, health insurance and health care decentralization. Costa-Font has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in more than forty different social science journals including contributions that have appeared in Health Policy, Health Economics, and Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law, and has written more than twenty book chapters and edited five books including the "LSE Companion to Health Policy" (with Alistair McGuire). Costa-Font has a Ph.D. in economics, and received a M.Sc. (Econ) in international health policy from the London School of Economics.
Placement: Harvard University
Mentors: Richard Frank, Ph.D., Margaret T. Morris Professor of Health Economics, Harvard Medical School; Katherine Swartz, Ph.D., Professor of Health Policy and Economics, Harvard School of Public Health
Project: Partnerships and Long-Term Care Financing in Europe and the United States
Description: Costa-Font will examine the sustainability of long-term care financing proposals in the U.S. post-CLASS Act, and compare them to evidence from other European countries' programs. A particular focus will be on “partnership agreements” for financing long-term care, where state governments partner with individuals, families, communities, or companies. Costa-Font will aim to combine empirical analysis of survey data as well as published evidence in order to examine the expected effects of the reforms in the U.S. Finally, he will examine the extent to which long term care can be self-insured within the household, and the implications that self-insurance through housing and other assets will have on equity and access. As part of this analysis, he will analyze how changes in wealth associated with the economic downturn (particularly lower home values) have impacted eligibility for Medicaid's long-term care coverage.