Health economics expert available to comment on today’s House vote

MEDIA ADVISORY

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Health economics expert available to comment on today’s House vote

HOUSTON – (May 4, 2017) – With the Republican-controlled U.S. House planning to vote on its repeal and replacement bill for “Obamacare” today, a Rice University health economics expert is available for news media interviews on the vote and the bill.

Vivian Ho

Vivian Ho, the chair in health economics at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and director of the institute’s Center for Health and Biosciences, said this bill puts Americans at risk.

“The revised bill puts millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions at risk of losing adequate health insurance coverage,” Ho said. “Most of the Americans who gained coverage under Obamacare will lose their insurance. Some young, healthy individuals will benefit from this law, but the losers will far outweigh the winners.”

Ho is also a professor in the Department of Economics at Rice and a professor in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Her research examines the effects of economic incentives and regulations on the quality and costs of health care. Her research is widely published in economics, medical and health-services research journals. Ho’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the American Cancer Society.

Ho has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Health Statistics, as well as on the NIH Health Services, Outcomes and Delivery study section. She is also a founding and current board member of the American Society for Health Economists. Ho received her A.B. in economics from Harvard University, a graduate diploma in economics from The Australian National University and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.

Rice’s Baker Institute has a broadcast studio available for radio and television interviews. For more information or to schedule an interview with Ho, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

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Follow Vivian Ho on Twitter @HealthEconTX

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Founded in 1993, Rice University’s Baker Institute ranks among the top five university-affiliated think tanks in the world. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute’s strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows, Rice University faculty scholars and staff, coupled with its outreach to the Rice student body through fellow-taught classes — including a public policy course — and student leadership and internship programs. Learn more about the institute at www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute’s blog, http://blogs.chron.com/bakerblog. 

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for happiest students and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.