Economic Evaluation in Healthcare

Study Notes

Cost per Case Prevented: calculates the cost associated with preventing a single case of a disease or health condition through interventions such as vaccination or screening programs.
Cost per Life Saved: quantifies the cost of saving one individual's life through healthcare interventions, such as emergency treatments or disease management programs.
Cost per DALY (Disability-Adjusted Life Year): calculates the economic cost associated with gaining or losing one DALY, often used to assess the cost-effectiveness of healthcare interventions in terms of their impact on population health.

Direct Costs: expenses directly associated with providing healthcare services, such as medical supplies, personnel salaries.
Indirect Costs: costs incurred as a result of illness or disease but are not directly related to healthcare provision, such as lost productivity due to illness or disability.

Social Health Insurance: main revenue type is payroll tax, pooling by job or income, and purchasing through collective and selective contracts (e.g., France, Germany, Japan).
Private Health Insurance: main revenue type is individual and employer payments, pooling through privately managed pools, and purchasing through selective contracts (e.g., United States, Greece, Singapore).

Health services can be financed through private expenditure or public expenditure (including external aid).
Public expenditure includes central and local government funds, while private expenditure includes voluntary payments by individuals or employers.

The choice of financing method affects who bears the financial burden, the amount of resources available, and who manages the allocation of resources.
Without strategic policies and focused spending mechanisms, the poor and other ordinary people may be left without care.

Health is considered a public good, and government needs to actively participate to avoid market failures.

Equity can be achieved at different levels, including:
- Equity in financing
- Equity in access to healthcare
- Equal level of health status
- Equity in terms of risk protection offered

Health Economics is the study of how resources are allocated within the healthcare system to maximize health outcomes.
It involves analyzing and comparing the costs and consequences of medical interventions or health programs to inform decision-making and resource allocation within the healthcare system.