The analytical approach of standard health economics has so far failed to sufficiently account for the nature of care.? This has important ramifications for the analysis and valuation of care, and therefore for the pattern of health and medical care provision. This book sets out an alternative approach, which places care at the center of an economics of health, showing how essential it is that care is appropriately recognized in policy as a means of enhancing the dignity of the individual.
Whereas traditional health economics has tended to eschew value issues, this book embraces them, introducing care as a normative element at the center of theoretical analysis. Drawing upon care theory from feminist works, philosophy, nursing and medicine, and political economy, the authors develop a health care economics with a moral basis in health care systems. In providing deeper insights into the nature of care and caring, this book seeks to redress the shortcomings of the standard approach and contribute to the development of a more person-based approach to health and medical care in economics.
Health Care Economics will be of interest to researchers and postgraduate students in health economics, heterodox economists, and those interested in health and medical care.
'At least in developed economies, the amount of resources devoted to health care is massive and growing. John B. Davis and Robert McMaster argue further that health care poses a major challenge to standard assumptions in mainstream economic analysis. They emphasise that the individual does not stand alone, and is embedded in a web of social relations, invoking varied and complex motivations. The impact of this challenging and well-argued book should spread well beyond health care economics alone.' - Geoffrey M Hodgson, Research Professor in Business Studies, University of Hertfordshire, UK
