Health care economics value measurements

Economic evaluation compares costs and consequences of alternative health care treatments or programs (Drummond et al. 2005). In one form of economic evaluation, cost-benefit analysis, all costs and consequences are valued in monetary terms. However, in health care it is much more common to use cost-effectiveness analysis, where the difference in cost between alternatives is compared with the difference in outcomes measured in units such as life years gained or quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained. 

Social values, that is, the collective societal beliefs about the nature of the human being and the structure of a society, play a strong role in the development of national policies. Political and economic decisions rest in large measure on the prevailing values held in a society. Hence, if a predominant social value rests on the notion that all societal members have a right to health care, political and economic policy developments will follow suit. One way of examining these contexts is to look at a spectrum of social values. 

The basic task of economic evaluation is to identify, measure, value, and compare the costs and consequences of the alternatives being considered. The two distinguishing characteristics of economic evaluation are as follows (1) Is there a comparison of two or more alternatives and (2) Are both costs and consequences of the alternatives examined A full economic evaluation encompasses both characteristics, whereas a partial economic evaluation addresses only one. Pharmacoeconomic evaluations conducted in today s health care settings may be either partial or full economic evaluations. 

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