Title |
The fallacy of the equity-efficiency trade off: rethinking the efficient health system
|
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Published in |
BMC Public Health, June 2012
|
DOI | 10.1186/1471-2458-12-s1-s3 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Daniel D Reidpath, Anna Elisabet Olafsdottir, Subhash Pokhrel, Pascale Allotey |
Abstract |
In the health systems literature one can see discussions about the trade off between the equity achievable by the system and its efficiency. Essentially it is argued that as greater health equity is achieved, so the level of efficiency will diminish. This argument is borrowed from economics literature on market efficiency. In the application of the economic argument to health, however, serious errors have been made, because it is quite reasonable to talk of both health equity being a desirable output of a health system, and the efficient production of that output. In this article we discuss notions of efficiency, and the equity-efficiency trade off, before considering the implications of this for health systems. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Spain | 2 | 33% |
Argentina | 1 | 17% |
Unknown | 3 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Members of the public | 6 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 3 | 2% |
United Kingdom | 2 | 2% |
Spain | 2 | 2% |
Kenya | 1 | <1% |
Switzerland | 1 | <1% |
Malaysia | 1 | <1% |
Ghana | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 115 | 91% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Master | 26 | 21% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 18 | 14% |
Researcher | 15 | 12% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 11 | 9% |
Student > Bachelor | 8 | 6% |
Other | 22 | 17% |
Unknown | 26 | 21% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Medicine and Dentistry | 23 | 18% |
Nursing and Health Professions | 16 | 13% |
Social Sciences | 15 | 12% |
Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 14 | 11% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 7 | 6% |
Other | 19 | 15% |
Unknown | 32 | 25% |