Author Archives: Amanda Honeycutt

About Amanda Honeycutt

Amanda A. Honeycutt, PhD, is a senior economist at RTI International, a not-for-profit research institute. She directs the Public Health Economics Program and conducts research on the burden of disease and the value of public health and health care interventions to prevent or treat disease and promote health.

Employment Reductions and Government Revenue Losses from Opioid Misuse

By | March 21, 2019

The economic burden of the U.S. opioid epidemic likely exceeds $78.5 billion per year when considering its impact on healthcare, substance abuse treatment, the criminal justice system, and productivity costs. Although medication assisted treatment for opioid abuse (covered previously at our blog) may help to reduce these costs [pdf], the epidemic is likely to continue to negatively impact… Read More »

Lessons from Analyses of Health Insurance Expansions from the 1980s through 2012

By | February 15, 2017

In a recent Medical Care article, Guy and colleagues analyzed health insurance expansions among parents from 1999 through 2012 to assess the impacts of four different types of public and private expansions. They primarily examined changes in parents’ health insurance coverage, but they also analyzed whether expanding coverage for parents could “spill over” and raise coverage… Read More »

Time for a vacation?

By | August 3, 2016

As I sat at my desk daydreaming about my family’s upcoming August beach vacation and remembering good times from last year’s beach trip with the kids, I began to feel the anxiety creeping in. I think you know the kind of anxiety I’m talking about: worry about falling behind on work, concern that my lack… Read More »

The Use of Clinical Preventive Services under the Affordable Care Act

By | June 9, 2016

Increased use of recommended clinical preventive services among adults, such as colorectal and breast cancer screening and influenza vaccination, may save up to 100,000 lives per year and vastly improve life expectancy among the US population. Despite these benefits, recommended preventive services have been underused. In this post, I focus on colorectal cancer screening among adults… Read More »