Financial and functional capacity of health care systems in the face of technological progress in medicine

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the article is to build a theoretical framework for analysis of dynamic relationships between expenditures and accessibility in various health care systems.

Methodology: The institutional model of patient-payer relations in different contractual settings was presented. The proposed model allows quantification of economically relevant parameters for this kind of contract, which makes comparative analysis of health care systems with regard to expenditures and access to health care more tractable and explicit.

Findings/originality: Four main characteristics of patient-payer contracts were identified: elasticity of demand with regard to “accessibility” and “expenditures” variables, and restrictions imposed on variability for access and expenditures. It is shown how these characteristics determine the dynamics of trade-offs between accessibility and expenditures in health care systems, especially in the context of cost pressures resulting from technological progress in medicine.