[Economic analyses of health care. Cost benefit analyses promote better use of resources]

Abstract

Resource constraints are accepted by most health care professionals. Economic analyses aim at employing scarce resources where they yield the maximum benefit to patients now and in the future. The two principle tools are cost-benefit-analysis (CBA) and cost-effectiveness-analysis (CEA). In CBA benefits are measured in monetary terms, whereas in CEA they are measured in non-monetary terms. Admittedly based on simplifications, economic analyses aim at stating explicitly the uncertainty of underlying assumptions. The basic idea of priority setting based on economic theory is not to minimize the health care budgets, but to maximize the health benefits. When some programmes are not recommended, it is not because they are useless, but because an alternative use of resources yields more benefit. The article summarizes the basic principles of CBA and CEA and discusses some examples of CEA.