Health economics or Health Care economics?[1]

Cláudia Cardoso[2]

ccardoso@ipca.pt

(recebido em 16 de Junho de 2008; aceite em 7 de Novembro de 2008)

 

 

Resumo: Arrow (1963) iniciou a discussão sobre mercados de cuidados de saúde. Contudo, foi Grossman (1972) quem apresentou um modelo de procura de saúde, mostrando que a problemática relevante era a Saúde e não os Cuidados de Saúde. Tanto Arrow como Grossman defenderam que os Cuidados de Saúde são apenas uma das variáveis que explicam a Saúde. Apesar de partirem da mesma premissa, os autores seguiram diferentes abordagens.

Discute-se se a disciplina, usualmente chamada de “Economia da Saúde” é essencialmente economia da saúde ou economia dos cuidados de saúde; e se é possível traçar uma fronteira precisa. A conclusão é que a separação existe e que, nas últimas décadas, a economia dos cuidados de saúde dominou a investigação.

Palavras-chave: pensamento económico, história económica, economia da saúde, economia dos cuidados de saúde, programas de investigação

 

 

Abstract. Arrow (1963) started the discussion about health care markets. However, Grossman (1972) was who presented a model of demand for health, showing that the relevant social concern was health, not health care. Both Arrow and Grossman defended that health care is just one of the variables that explain health. Despite starting from the same premise, they followed different approaches.

It is discussed if the discipline usually called ‘health economics’ is mainly health economics, or mainly health care economics; and if we can trace a precise distinction. The conclusion is that the separation exists and that, in the last decades, the health care economics had dominated the research.    

Keywords: economic thought, economic history, health economics, health care economics, research programmes

 

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References

Arrow. K. J. (1963). “Uncertainty and the welfare economics of medical care”. American Economic Review. 53 (5): 941-973        [ Links ]

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Edwards. R. T. (2001). “Paradigms and research programmes: is it time to move from health care economics to health economics?”. Health Economics. 10: 635-649

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The author acknowledges Professors Roger Backhouse and Pedro Teixeira for their helpful comments. This paper was used as a partial input to a collective work: Borges, Ana Pinto, Cardoso, Cláudia and Rebelo, Luís Pina (2007), “Health Economics: From a pool of thoughts, unravelling into two paths”, presented at HET 2007, Belfast.

 

[1] The author acknowledges Professors Roger Backhouse and Pedro Teixeira for their helpful comments. This paper was used as a partial input to a collective work: Borges, Ana Pinto, Cardoso, Cláudia and Rebelo, Luís Pina (2007), “Health Economics: From a pool of thoughts, unravelling into two paths”, presented at HET 2007, Belfast.

[2] Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave