Essentials of health economics. Part III. Developing health care policies

Abstract

The previous part of the series (part II) was concerned with the questions of choice in the context of financing systems. This and the next two parts are again concerned with choice, the central issue of economics. Here (part III) we discuss some of the ways in which economics has been and can be used within the National Health Service to assist in developing health care policy. How to plan the supply of 'inputs' to health care (the subject of part IV) and the evaluation of different treatment choices (discussed in part V) are closely related issues.