Is health care a market?. Does turning health care into a market lower the cost (and increase the quality) of health care?

      Аннотация: The rising cost of health care is a major crisis faced by several countries, especially the U.S. Turning health care into a ‘market’ is a common solution put forward by many governments. Two common arguments regarding the rising cost of health care in the US are: A) Rising cost is due to too much market. B) Rising cost is due to government regulations. The aim of this book is to investigate these arguments about the US health care system and to understand whether turning health care into a market would help bring down cost and raise quality. As a first step, the concept of ‘market’ is defined. For this purpose, a neoclassical model of health care ‘market’ is developed as a theoretical framework and compared to the features of health care. To further investigate whether the market can bring down cost, the main components leading to high cost in health care have been identified as the pharmaceutical industry, the medical technology industry, physicians, and hospitals. Furthermore, cost developments in each of these areas is analysed. This book concludes by raising several questions that policy analysts need to raise, while formulating future health care policies.

Ключевые слова: Health Care, Market, neoclassical economics, government regulations, pharmaceutical industry, physicians, Hospitals, medical technology industry