Victor Robert Fuchs (born January 31, 1924) is an American health economist.

Career

He is an emeritus professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. Since 1962, he has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and is the co-director of the FRESH-Thinking Project and CASBS at Stanford University. Fuchs was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1982 and to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1990. In 1995, he served as president of the American Economic Association. In 2001, he was recipient of the John R. Commons Award, given by the economics honor society

Omicron Delta Epsilon Omicron Delta Epsilon ( or ODE) is an international honor society in the field of economics, formed from the merger of Omicron Delta Gamma and Omicron Chi Epsilon, in 1963. Its board of trustees includes well-known economists such as Robert Luc ...

Relative poverty rate

Fuchs is credited with introducing the relative poverty rate, calculated as the fraction of members of a society earning less than 50% of the median income.

Comparison of healthcare in Canada and US

In 1990 Fuchs published a paper together with James S. Hahn, entitled ''How Does Canada Do it? – A comparison of Expenditures for Physicians' Services in the United States and Canada''. It discusses the differences in the Canadian and US healthcare spending patterns and also discusses why healthcare expenditures are so much higher in the United States. Fuchs and Hahn found that the higher US expenditures were entirely based on 234 percent higher fees for services than Canada even though there are more physicians per capita in Canada. That shows that the typical view of Canada saving money by delivering fewer services is false and that the insurance setup, being a single-payer system, is what gives it the edge. Differences between the United States and Canada on fees, spending, and use are shown. The accentuating difference begins with the disparity in health care coverage. Canada operates under a universal health care system, which covers majority of their residents. On the other hand, the United States operates under a fragmented multi-payer system that fails to provide coverage for many Americans. Moreover, the lack of correspondence between both countries regarding health care coverage validates part of the narrative reported in the study, which concluded that the US spent more on physicians' services than Canada. Furthermore, the study also suggests that higher expenditures in the US is a function of many factors including higher wages earned by US physicians, the difference of physicians on demand, billing costs, quality of health care, physicians' workload, and superfluous amenities. Notably, the factors bring to question the underlying differences in health care delivery, and the authors reported more general practitioners in Canada per capita. The limited role of general practitioners in the US compared to Canada may imply that Canadian physicians are "more inclined to recommend additional evaluation and management services."

Published books

* ''Who Shall Live? Health, Economics, and Social Choice'' (1975) * ''The Future of Health Policy'' (1998)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Victor 1924 births Living people Health economists Columbia University alumni New York University alumni Presidents of the American Economic Association Stanford University faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine