The Economics of Health Care: A Reference Handbook

An excellent and up-to-date … review of the health economics literature. The book is designed to supplement existing health economic texts, serve as a reference resource to researchers and policy analysts, and provide a frame of reference for administrators. The authors concentrate on four major topics and also review the research based on multivariate analysis relevant to those topics… . In brief, the book reviews a number of technical, conceptual, and research issues in a policy framework. Well-written.

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Rosko and Broyles begin the book with an overview of rising expenditures in the health care industry, commenting on inflationary pressures and the resulting reduction in access to health care services. The second part of the book, which is devoted to demand-side issues, looks at the determining factors in the demand for health services and the various theories that have been advanced to explain demand. The authors examine the economic impact of third-party payments, health insurance options, and the situation of the elderly and the uninsured. Supply-side analyses are the focus of Part III. The authors present models for assessing the impact of prospective payment systems on providers and the impact of admissions policies of hospitals and nursing homes on those who require health care. A discussion of the methods of determining the output of various types of health providers, including a comprehensive evaluation of patient classification systems is presented. Analyses of production and cost functions and the supply and distribution of physicians are included, and in the final chapters, competitive and regulatory approaches to cost containment are explored.