Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The increase in health expenditures has raised important questions about\nthe appropriate height of health care spending as well as the justification of\nthese expenditures. One tool in the search of ensuring the optimal allocation\nof scarce societal and health care resources is economic evaluation of health\ncare interventions, such as new pharmaceuticals, diagnostics or preventive\nmeasures. In economic evaluations, the costs of an intervention are compared\nto its benefits, expressed in some meaningful manner. Consistently applying\nthese evaluations, in theory, would ensure an optimal level of spending in the\nhealth care sector (that is, the size of the budget, or how much to spend on\nhealth) as well as an optimal use of the available resources within the budget\n(that is, on what the budget is spent). This optimal spending can be defined in\nlight of the twin goals of health care policy; efficiency and equity. As such,\neconomic evaluations can be seen as applied welfare economics, aimed at informing\nsocial choices to come to a maximization of broadly defined welfare.
Author: Marieke Krol
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline
OpenAlex ID: W118042746