The role of the public and private sectors in health financing
Lal, Deepak
This paper examines the role of the public and private sectors in health financing from a viewpoint that differs significantly from the technocratic health economics which has dominated current discussions of health policy. It sets out the issues and discusses the case for public health programs and the use of quality adjusted life years (QALYs) as a tool for planning public financing/provision of essential clinical services. It also examines the "a priori" arguments that have been used to suggest that health care is a different type of commodity from other goods and services. Government involvement either in the form of tax financing and/or regulation of the health care market are recommended as necessary to correct its endemic market failures. Two points are discussed to assess this argument: one concerns the differing vision of the market process; the second concerns the two rival views of the links between ethics, economics and politics. The final section of the paper presents conclusions on the role markets should play in health care.
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