The development of an internal market in UK public sector health care has introduced hard budget constraints for those general practitioner purchasers who elect to hold their own budgets or 'funds'. Prescription medicines constitute an element of the fundholder's budget and a theoretical model...

Unlike other industrialised countries, the UK deferred the routine introduction of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) in favour of an experiment. Between 2002 and 2005, MS sufferers were identified, were offered DMTs only if deemed suitable by their physicians, and...

Health economists use “willingness-to-pay” to assess the prospective value of novel interventions. The technique remains controversial, not least with respect to the formats under which values are elicited. The paper analyses the results of a series of studies of the same intervention valued...