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Health Economics and Financing

Name: Health Economics and Financing
Author: Thomas E. Getzen
ISBN: 9781118184905

by Thomas E. Getzen

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Overview

Now in a new edition, this textbook is a primer for the economic analysis of medical markets that engages the central economic issues of the health economics and financing field. It provides a comprehensive look at the principles and concepts of health economics, as well as footnotes and references. Furthermore, this edition offers a strengthened macro section along with additional material on the ACA (Health Reform), as it is such a relevant topic today.

Synopsis

Health Economics and Financing serves as the perfect primer for the economic analysis of medical markets. It prepares students of medicine, public health, policy and administration who wish to engage the central economic issues of their field—without extensive mathematics or highly technical analytical techniques.

Getzen’s text includes effective explanations of how and why health and medicine are both like and unlike other economic goods, as well as knowledge about institutional features, for students who intend to go into this unique and rewarding line of work.

Health Economics and Financing serves as an excellent primer for introducing students to the principles and core concepts of health economics rather than its literature, equations, or research methods.

About the Author, Thomas E. Getzen

Thomas E. Getzen is Professor of Risk, Insurance and Health Management at Temple University and the founder and Executive Director of iHEA, the International Health Economics Association. After receiving an undergraduate degree in literature from Yale University, he worked for the U.S.P.H.S. Centers for Disease Control Venereal Disease program in New York and Los Angeles, and then obtained an MHA degree in Medical Care Organization and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington. Dr. Getzen's main research contributions have been in the areas of contracting, price indexes and forecasting of health care spending. His consulting work has included employee benefit negotiations, projections of health care cost trends and premiums, laboratory diagnostics, risk assessment, and capital financing for managed care. Dr. Getzen has been a visiting professor at the University of Toronto, the Center for Health and Wellbeing of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of York (UK). He has served on the boards of Covenant House, a local community health center in northwest Philadelphia, MSI, a venture-capital financed managed behavioral health care corporation, and CHE, a multi-institutional health provider system with over 60 hospitals and nursing homes. Dr. Getzen has written more than 80 papers in the field and serves on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics.

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Editorials

Booknews

An introduction to the economic analysis of medical markets and the production of health, primarily for students of medicine, public health, or administration who have little or no background in economics, but also for beginning economics students. Describes the incentives and organizational structure of the health care industry with a Flow of Funds approach, outlines the ongoing evolution of managed care in the US, and macroeconomic perspectives the dynamics of change and determinants of national health spending. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Reviewer: Kevin J Carr, BA(University of Maryland)
Description: This book outlines medical markets in a way that presupposes no prior knowledge of economic technicalities. This update of the 2007 edition reflects some of the recent changes in government healthcare policy.
Purpose: The purpose is to describe the economics of healthcare to students and professionals who are not familiar with either subject. This topic has been dominant in American politics, and the complex technicalities of medical markets are certainly worthy of such a thorough introduction.
Audience: The author hopes to reach two groups: medical researchers, students, and administrators who have little prior understanding of economics, and economics students who want to study the application of economic principles to a real-world field. I could see a class in either field being built around this book.
Features: The book clearly describes the basic principles of markets and then applies them to of medical markets. Specifically, it details the role of patients, providers, insurance companies, and governments. It also discusses the topic from an international standpoint, comparing healthcare spending and benefits in a diverse sampling of nations. The book is most helpful in breaking up the enormous topic of medical markets into its component parts and discussing each individually. For example, hospitals and nursing homes are each discussed separately. The only drawback is that it does not specifically address the healthcare reforms recently enacted by Congress. These may change the game substantially, necessitating a fifth edition very soon.
Assessment: As someone with an economics background with no prior knowledge of medical markets or medical finance, I found I learned quite a bit from this book. It follows the typical format of an economics textbook. Technical jargon is highlighted and then fully defined. Mathematical concepts are described first in words, then in graphs. References point to further reading. This update is justified, but without a discussion of the concrete provisions of the recently passed healthcare reform law, it is conceivable this edition will be obsolete before very long.