Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface and acknowledgements -- Introduction: approaching health economics -- Our approach and structure of the book -- Part I Health, healthcare and healthcare systems -- 1 Understanding "health" in health economics -- 1.1 Definitions and models of "health" and "disease" -- 1.2 Pathology and the definition of specific diseases -- 1.3 Factors influencing health and disease -- 1.4 Data, data sources and data analysis -- 1.5 Health and human rights -- Further reading -- 2 From disease to care -- 2.1 Need and demand for healthcare -- 2.2 Healthcare systems -- 2.3 Providing care -- 2.4 Quality of care -- Further reading -- 3 Ethics, values and the idea of a good life -- 3.1 Theories of justice -- 3.2 Governance and the role of social institutions -- 3.3 Positive and normative health economics -- 3.4 Disease, incentives and moral convictions: towards a dictatorship of health? -- Further reading -- 4 Healthcare management -- 4.1 Management: history and terminology -- 4.2 Management and organizations -- 4.3 Management activities -- Further reading -- 5 Financing healthcare -- 5.1 Spending on healthcare -- 5.2 Describing financial flows: national health accounts -- 5.3 Who pays for whom? Equity in financing -- 5.4 Effects of healthcare spending on the household -- Further reading -- 6 The relationship between macroeconomics and health -- 6.1 The economic consequences of disease -- 6.2 Investing in health -- 6.3 The basis for government spending: fiscal space -- 6.4 Social security, automatic stabilizers and projecting future costs -- Further reading -- 7 Comparing healthcare systems -- 7.1 Comparative healthcare system analysis: economics, data, history and attitudes -- 7.2 Social health insurance in Germany -- 7.3 The Beveridge Report and the UK welfare state.

7.4 Sin taxes to finance national health insurance: the Philippines -- 7.5 World war and vested interests prevented the creation of a national health insurance: the United States -- Further reading -- Part II Health economic theory -- 8 Approaching healthcare from an economic perspective -- 8.1 Economic thinking in healthcare and the role of health economics -- The role of public goods -- The role of health economics: providing data and reflecting on goals -- 8.2 Economics as a field of study and economics as a method -- 8.3 A very short history of health economics -- 8.4 The political economy of healthcare systems -- 8.5 Mathematics, models and causality in health economics -- Independent and dependent variables, models, econometrics and mixed methods -- Further reading -- 9 Neoclassical economics: The prevailing approach -- 9.1 Homo economicus -- Utility -- Marginal analysis -- Efficiency -- Rationality -- Human capital and investing in people -- 9.2 Welfare economics -- 9.3 Two key works: Kenneth Arrow and Michael Grossman -- 9.4 Game theory -- Vaccination -- 9.5 Criticisms of neoclassical theory -- Unrealistic modelling of human behaviour -- Neglect of transaction costs -- Neglect of institutions -- Ignoring alternative modes of distribution -- 9.6 Responses: historical school, behavioural economics and new institutional economics -- Historical school: putting economics in context -- Behavioural economics: how do people make decisions? -- New institutional economics: understanding markets and institutions -- Further reading -- Appendix -- An example of neoclassical reasoning in health economics: Arrow's calculation of loss of utility -- 10 Markets, market failure, state intervention and state failure -- 10.1 Markets -- Pareto efficiency and Pareto optimum -- 10.2 Market failure -- 10.3 Government intervention and government failure.

10.4 Where markets and governments fail: common goods for health -- Further reading -- 11 Options for financing medical care -- 11.1 Uncertainty in health and healthcare -- 11.2 Non-insurance forms of health financing -- Out-of-pocket payments -- Direct subsidies -- Consumer-directed healthcare plans -- Health savings accounts -- Micro-credit, micro-savings and micro-insurance -- Taxation-based funding -- 11.3 Health insurance -- 11.4 Overview of insurance types -- Social health insurance -- Community-based health insurance -- Private/employer-based health insurance -- Further reading -- 12 Evaluation methods in health economics -- 12.1 Why economic evaluation? -- 12.2 Welfarism, extra-welfarism and different forms of economic evaluation -- Cost-benefit analysis -- Cost-effectiveness analysis -- Cost-utility analysis -- Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) -- Multi-criteria decision-making -- 12.3 Measuring health and disease -- The quality-adjusted life year (QALY) -- Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) -- 12.4 Problems with QALYs -- 12.5 Comparing neoclassical, QALY-based and medical thinking -- 12.6 Distributional equity impacts and trade-offs -- 12.7 Cost measurement and analysis -- 12.8 Important modelling techniques -- Further reading -- 13 Health technology and health technology assessment -- 13.1 What is health technology assessment and where can it be applied? -- 13.2 HTA as a political and technical endeavour -- Indonesia: linking HTA to the national health insurance programme -- Thailand: a success story based on a private initiative -- Malaysia: gradual evolution of comprehensive HTA -- 13.3 Key elements of an HTA system -- 13.4 HTA and reimbursement in a changing healthcare system -- The UK: using the cost per QALY -- Germany: the efficiency frontier -- New Zealand: programme budgeting and marginal analysis -- Further reading.

14 Paying for medical care: Balancing appropriateness, quality and cost -- 14.1 Strategic purchasing of healthcare -- 14.2 Paying for curative care, public healthcare and preventative services -- Fee-for-service and per diems -- Capitation -- Pathology-based systems -- Mixed systems -- Payment methods for public health and preventative services -- Social-impact bonds -- 14.3 Pay-for-performance -- 14.4 Co-payments and user fees -- 14.5 Value-based healthcare -- 14.6 Context matters -- Further reading -- Part III From theory to practice: Using medical economics to improve global health -- 15 Medical economics: An applied interdisciplinary science that looks at evidence, considers complexity and implements what works -- 15.1 Applying the logic of medicine in medical economics -- 15.2 The interdisciplinary nature of medical economics and the uses of economic thinking -- Transforming concepts into policy -- The advantages of rigorous analysis: the health economics of old age -- The useful challenges of economic thinking -- A word of caution -- 15.3 Health policy, data and health reform -- Health reform -- 15.4 Managing complexity -- The digitalization of medicine -- A "theory of everything"? -- The (second) transformation of medicine -- Further reading -- 16 Global health and social health protection -- 16.1 Global health -- The economics of global public health: polio eradication -- The perverse logic of welfare economics: a memorandum from the World Bank -- 16.2 Global intervention and collaboration -- The influence of donors -- Governance -- 16.3 Social protection in a changing demography -- 16.4 Measuring social protection -- 16.5 Translating behavioural economics into practice: nudging and conditionality -- Further reading -- 17 Toward rational financing of healthcare -- 17.1 Principles of financing.

Four criteria of a healthcare financing arrangement -- Three core functions of healthcare financing -- 17.2 Goals of government-run financing schemes -- Goals -- 17.3 Implementing a financing scheme at the national level -- Decision I: set-up and governance -- Decision II: enrolment, benefit package and entitlement to services -- Decision III: sourcing and pooling of funds -- Decision IV: ownership of providers -- Decision V: flow of funds and deposit of financial reserves -- 17.4 Technical aspects -- 17.5 Actuarial calculations and monitoring -- Further reading -- 18 Priority-setting and essential health service packages -- 18.1 Scarcity of resources and the need for rationing -- 18.2 The cost per QALY approach as a prioritization tool -- The balance between efficiency and distributive justice -- "Individual" versus "statistical" life -- A concept of distributive justice -- 18.3 Essential healthcare services (or benefits) packages -- Examples from Mexico and Chile -- 18.4 Defining a benefit package -- Further reading -- Epilogue: Moving beyond the commoditization of health and making better use of the "dismal science" -- References -- Index.

Written by two medics, who are also qualified economists, this introduction to health economics draws on a wider range of economic thinking than that normally underpinning health policy to explore how economics can best contribute to improved health care.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2023. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.