Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Diagnosing Market Inefficiency: The Impact Of Consolidation In The Private Health Insurance Market On Healthcare Costs In The United States, Zachary Ising

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This study presents a critical analysis of the relationship between the market concentration of private health insurance companies and per capita healthcare costs in the United States. It explores the hypothesis that consolidation within the private health insurance sector, driven by frequent mergers and acquisitions, contributes to a dysfunctional healthcare system characterized by high consumer costs. The study investigates the degree of market concentration in the health insurance sector from 2017 to 2020, focusing on healthcare costs per capita as the dependent variable, and employing independent variables such as market data of health insurers, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), and the …

Beyond The City-County Divide: Race, Referenda, And Representation In Consolidated Governments, Christopher Johnson Acuff

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite an abundance of research on the impacts of city-county consolidation, the majority of studies to date have focused on outcomes related to efficiency, effectiveness, and economic development. However, two areas which have gone relatively unexplored, particularly from a quantitative perspective, relate to the impact of consolidation on minority representation, as well as the determinants of successful referenda often required in establishing these forms of government. The existing literature on representation is sparse, and often relies on anecdotes or a small number of individual examples. Further, while several in-depth studies have attempted to assess the factors which contribute to successful …

Public Journalism, The Second Level Of Agenda-Setting And Public Policy: The Role Of The Daily Press Newspaper In Creating, Framing And Fostering The Issues Of Regionalism And Consolidation On The Virginia Peninsula, 1944-1996, Shannon O'Bier Jackson

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study uses quantitative content analysis, with qualitative elite interviewing as a supplemental tool, to investigate the role of the Daily Press newspaper in creating, framing and fostering the locally controversial issues of regionalism and consolidation on the Virginia Peninsula from 1944-1996.

The investigation supports earlier findings regarding the second-level of Agenda-setting in terms of the newspaper's ability to cumulatively create "the pictures in our heads" of events or issues. The dissertation suggests that by selecting thematically related attributes over time, the newspaper acts to transmit issue salience, but that the potential impact of the "picture in our heads" is …