Policy Press

Credit crunch health care

How economics can save our publicly funded health services

By Cam Donaldson

Published

Feb 16, 2011

Page count

160 pages

ISBN

978-1847427526

Dimensions

216 x 138 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Feb 16, 2011

Page count

160 pages

ISBN

978-1847427533

Dimensions

216 x 138 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Feb 16, 2011

Page count

160 pages

ISBN

978-1447304524

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Feb 16, 2011

Page count

160 pages

ISBN

978-1447304517

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press
Credit crunch health care

World-leading health economist Cam Donaldson defends NHS-type systems on the same basis as their detractors: economic efficiency. However, protecting government funding of health care is not enough: scarcity has to be managed. Donaldson goes on to show how we can get more out of our systems by addressing issues of value for money. In particular, he demonstrates what has been achieved through health care reform but questions how much more this can deliver relative to getting serious about priority setting.

The issues addressed in the book have global relevance and this accessible book will therefore appeal to the public, health professionals and health policy specialists.

" ‘Credit Crunch Health Care’ could be read by anybody and everybody involved in the provision of health care in the UK and worldwide. And I believe it should." Chris Sampson on The Academic Health Economists' blog

"Cam Donaldson is an excellent provocative economics writer who can tell it like it is and engage people in the big issues of the day. This book is open to everyone but does not simplify the complex world that we face. Anyone who pays for or manages health services will benefit from this book, including every clinician and every citizen." Sir Muir Gray, CBE, Co-Director, NHS QIPP Programme

"As ever, my eminent colleague, Cam Donaldson, demonstrates in straightforward language how central economics is to the future of health care in Canada, the UK and internationally. This is economics with a human - and humane - face. Everyone concerned about health care needs to read this book." Professor Anthony J. Culyer

Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy & System Design, University of Toronto, Canada; and Professor of Economics, University of York, England.

Cam Donaldson holds the Yunus Chair in Social Business and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University. From 2002-10, he held the Health Foundation Chair in Health Economics at Newcastle University, where he was founding director of the Institute of Health and Society and professor in the Newcastle University Business School. He held the Svare Chair in Health Economics at the University of Calgary from 1998-2002, having first become a professor of health economics in 1996 while at the Health Economics Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen.

Foreword by Sir Michael Rawlins; Introduction: the quid pro quo of health care; Market failure in health care; Charging the public: exception or anomaly?; Reform, privatisation and those damn doctors; The fiscal future of health care: an economist's rant; Economic evaluation; What's your health worth?; Conclusion; Appendix: 'What's your health worth?' A questionnaire