Rationalizing Waiting Times in Health Care Delivery: An International Comparison - Governare i tempi di attesa in sanità: un confronto internazionale Comparison -

Angela Testi ()
Additional contact information
Angela Testi: Università degli Studi di Genova, Dipartimento di Economia e Metodi Quantitativi, Postal: Via Vivaldi 5 - 16126 Genova - Italy,, http://www.unige.it/

Economia Internazionale / International Economics, 2012, vol. 65, issue 1, 189-201

Abstract: In health care delivery, waiting lists are perceived to reflect the inadequacy of health care funding. They are portrayed as one of the major problems of publicly funded health systems and are a perpetual source of community and political discomfort. It appears that a trade-off between efficiency (waits as a rationing tool in absence of price) and equity (free access to everyone is in need) arises. Recent international experiences referred to elective surgery suggest to implement demand-side policies instead of supply-side ones. This means recognizing that the free package the citizens are entitled to should comprehend services to be delivered not immediately, but according to individual urgency (horizontal equity) and respecting priority as well, that is ordering access (vertical equity). It is essential, in fact, that those who have the greatest need for surgery and will benefit most from it receive it in a timely manner and before those with lesser need. Results are still under debate and future research is required. -

Keywords: Waiting List; Efficiency and Equity Evaluation; Elective Surgery; Prioritization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.iei1946.it/RePEc/ccg/TESTI%20189_201.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:ecoint:0645

Access Statistics for this article

Economia Internazionale / International Economics is currently edited by Giovanni Battista Pittaluga

More articles in Economia Internazionale / International Economics from Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova Via Garibaldi 4, 16124 Genova, Italy. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Angela Procopio ().