Health care cost containment

Abstract

The prime objective of health policy is to improve the health of the population. This must be done with limited resources and at costs that do not impose an unsustainable burden on the economy and its international competitiveness. This is the crucial question to answer: Is the performance of the economy sufficient to allow further development of health services? If the answer is, no', then the affordability of health care has to be maintained through cost containment. The aim of cost containment (or cost control) is to contain the escalation of health care cost in real terms, or in relative terms as opposed to economic growth. Cost containment is a response to the imbalance between the resources generated by the economy end the health system needs (thus not necessarily health needs). This imbalance proves, inter alia, by growing health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP.