Technology and the allocation of resources.

Abstract

The health care systems of several Western democracies are widely perceived to be in a state of crisis. Each year the demand for health services increases, and it is more difficult to avoid a widening gap between the cost of these services and the amount that society is prepared to pay, through either the government or private third-party insurers. This is not a problem that will be solved simply. To explain why the costs of health services are so difficult to control, various reasons have been advanced — waste and inefficiency by health workers, clumsy and expensive bureaucratic systems, overconsumption . . .