Economic Evaluation in Healthcare

Costs in Healthcare

• 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.

Types of Costs

• 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.

Health Insurance Systems

• 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 Service Financing Sources

• 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.

Impact of Financing Method

• 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.

Government Role in Healthcare

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

Equity in Healthcare

• 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

• 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.

Cost Descriptions

• Costs can be described in various ways, including:
  • Cost per unit (e.g., cost per tablet or vial)
  • Cost per treatment
  • Cost per person
  • Cost per person per year
  • Cost per case prevented
  • Cost per life saved
  • Cost per DALY (disability-adjusted life year)