Rising health costs may seem dismal, but this economist says there’s hope
Vivian Ho, an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, will visit the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC to deliver the first Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture of 2025.
Vivian Ho has made a career tracking health expenditures and uncovering ways to improve access to and quality of care. On Feb. 20, she will deliver the first Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture of 2025 at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke. Photo courtesy of Vivian Ho.
One of every $6 in the United States’ economy is spent on health care. Last year, Americans spent more on health care than residents of any other country.
Vivian Ho said it doesn’t have to be that way.
“The health insurance market doesn’t work like auto insurance. We feel that everyone does need to have access to health care,” said Ho, a health economist and professor at Rice University. “Health economics is about finding ways to lower costs while giving everyone access to high-quality health care.”
On Thursday, Feb. 20, Ho will lecture on How Big Med Drives Rising Health Care Costs at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke.
The costs of employer-provided health insurance and hospital services have tripled in the last 25 years. In a recent analysis of hospital data, Ho and her colleagues at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy discovered stark differences in pricing. Even within the same metropolitan areas, many top-rated hospitals charged significantly different prices for identical services. Sometimes, costs for the same procedures at similarly rated hospitals differed by more than 20 percent.
For Ho, the data offers one especially hopeful insight: Lowering costs for patients does not necessarily mean lowering quality.
“In the midst of urgent conversations prompted by the escalating costs of health care delivery, Vivian Ho continues to be one of the strongest advocates for a reimagined health care market,” said Michael Friedlander, executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and Virginia Tech vice president for health sciences and technology.
“Dr. Ho’s research points to the possibility of a system still fueled by discovery in health and scientific innovations in medical technology, but with a reduced financial burden on those most in need of treatment,” Friedlander said. “We are honored to share with the Roanoke community luminaries working not only at the leading edge of biomedical science but also those who inform us to grapple with challenges that manifest at the level of entire systems for health care delivery with equally important impact.”
Ho serves as the James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics at the Baker Institute for Public Policy. She is a professor in the Department of Economics at Rice University and at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Ho has been a member of the American Society of Health Economists since 2004 and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.
“Hidden health care prices cause an information asymmetry that gives hospitals and health insurers unfair pricing power over consumers who are forced to pay with the equivalent of a blank check,” Ho wrote in an opinion piece for The Hill. “Economists of all backgrounds support price transparency as a fundamental solution to the American health care cost crisis. But you don’t need to be an economist to understand the importance of upfront prices.”
The lecture will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at 2 Riverside Circle in Roanoke. The program begins with a reception at 5 p.m. The lecture will be livestreamed via Zoom.
Through the generosity of late Roanoke businessman and philanthropist Maury Strauss, the lecture is free and open to the public. Through his gift, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute continues to bring the world’s leading innovators and thought leaders in health sciences and biomedical research to the Roanoke community.
