In England as elsewhere, policy makers are trying to reduce the pressure on costs due to rising hospital admissions by encouraging GPs to refer fewer patients to hospital specialists. This could have an impact on elective treatment levels, particularly procedures for conditions which are not...

This paper extends the health economics literature with a risk based Random Utility Model for discrete medical treatments choice analysis using Population level observational data. The model is based on a subjective interpretation of the choice probabilities, and the economic theory of decision...

Background Productivity in the healthcare sector has evolved as an appealing research topic in the last few years. Despite the growing interest, the extant scientific literature mostly concentrates on methodologies rather than theoretical and practical insights. Although diverse methodologies...

This paper examines major problems that are associated with the healthcare system in the United States. Problems discussed include the rising cost of healthcare in America, high cost of drugs, variation in hospital costs, the proliferation of new prescription drugs that provide little or no...

Population aging is believed to be a major factor behind the rise of health care cost worldwide. However, an increasing body of evidence in the literature on the subject of population aging and its influence on health care cost suggests that demographic changes play a relatively minor role in...

Based on a survey given to a random sample of Swedish 20-40 year old females, this paper investigates through which channels women receive information about the general risk levels of age-related female infertility and how the different channels affect women’s perceptions of the risk. We find...

Health care has to make transitions to be truly effective in the modern world. A change in paradigm is needed. This requires that value - defined as the health outcome for a particular medical condition per unit of cost expended - must be applied and added to health care, and health care itself...

The aim of this study is to address the challenges of using cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) by decision-makers in rationalizing health care public spending. Firstly, it presents a brief literature review on the necessity of using cost-effectiveness analysis. Also, the paper focuses on ways of...

Background With the exception of key 'proven successes' in global health, the current regime of global health governance can be understood as transnational and national actors pursuing their own interests under a rational actor model of international cooperation, which fails to provide...

Ireland’s health system is at a key turning point. The Irish government was newly elected in February 2011, and the policy directions adopted over the coming months will likely exert a major impact on system performance for many years. Drawing on recent international experience with...