Choice and accountability in health promotion: the role of health economics
Craig, N.; Walker, D.
Health Education Research 11(3) 355-360; Discussion: 361-366
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0268-1153 PMID: 10163566 DOI: 10.1093/her/11.3.355Document Number: 300150
Choices must be made between competing uses of health care resources. There is debate, however, over how such choices should be made, who should make them, and the criteria upon which they should be made. The evaluation of health care is part of the debate. Some argue that health economics can make only a limited contribution to the evaluation of health promotion. That position, however, both misrepresents and misunderstands the contribution of health economics to the evaluation of health promotion. It overstates the methodological difficulties of evaluating health promotion and mistakenly argues that economists see economic evaluation as a substitute for the political and cultural processes which govern health care, rather than as an input to them. The authors argue for an economics input on grounds of efficiency, accountability, and ethics, and challenge critics of the economic approach to judge alternative mechanisms for allocating resources by the same criteria.