Rationing Health Care Flashcards
Rationing definitie (Breyer,2013)
to limit beneficial health care and individual desires by any means- price or non-price, direct or indirect, explicit or implicit
dismal science
- desires and needs are infinite, yet sources are limited
- scarcity
- available resources used to maximize outcomes
- rationing is inevitable due to scarcity
scarcity
never enough resources to satisfy all human wants and needs
optimality economic
equilibrium equals supply and demand
markets do not result in optimal outcomes in health care due to specific characteristics
- uncertainty and consequences of insurance
- information asymmetry between consumers and suppliers
- existence of externalities
rationing outside health care
money can be used for education, safety, infrastructure etc
rationing inside health care
money can be used for displacement
we ration because of opportunity costs; the same resources can produce more health or wellbeing elsewhere
Weale 1998 three wishes
basic principle of many health care systems is to offer
comprehensive
high quality medical care
to all citizens
inconsistent triad
the three wishes; comprehensive, high quality medical care, to all citizens, cannot be fulfilled at the same time
beneficial
when a treatment is PROVEN to give a positive effect on the health or quality of life
continuous; more or less beneficial
reimbursement model
- premium from consumer to insurer
- reimbursement from insurer tot consumer
- provider payment from consumer to provider
- vulnerable to failures of cost containment; moral hazard
contract model
premium from consumer tot insurer
provider payment from insurer tot provider
voluntary insurance
- problems with equity: low incomes and high risks have difficulties buying insurance
- premiums often risk related or community rated
- adverse selection
consequences of rationing
- patient: health/wellbeing
- social environment: family effect: informal care
- health systems: dissatisfaction: waiting lists
- society: inequities, higher costs, safety
supply side rationing
- through introducing closed end budgets
- common in public systems where government involvement in health care is strong
- results: a system that’s naturally restricted in its capacity tot treat people: waiting lists
waiting times
waiting times can be a mismatch between supply and demand: demand >
- can be caused by built in design: demand free but restricting supply care
hidden demand
becomes visible when the price of care is lowering or the waiting time reduces
cost sharing equity
- if we reduce care consumption relatively strong in low income groups, we create inequity. care use not in line with care need
evaluation criteria for limiting the basic benefits package
necessity
effectiveness
cost effectiveness
feasibility
CUA
cost utility analysis
ICER
cost effectiveness
ct : Qi
where to draw the line?
80000 or 75000 per qaly
market failure due to
- uncertainty and consequences of insurance
- information asymmetry between consumers and suppliers
- existence of externalities
why is health care rationing such an issue
- health care is a special good
- central to human fluorishing, capabilities and utility
- strong feelings of solidarity
- in many countries much health care is free
- setting limits to acces or coverage seen as unjustified
four forms of rationing (Lamm)
price
quantity
chance
prioritization
implicit rationing
only sets the limits/budget but does not indicate how the scarce resources should be allocated.
- the lower people (doctors)make the decisions
- con: potential differences between hospitals
- society determines the health care budget
explicit rationing
sets limits to resources available in combination with choices on how the scarce resources should be allocated
- making explicitly clear who gets what
- budget can be more flexible
- rules and guidelines who gets what treatment
- government decides
- resistance in society, difficulty of specifying general rules
- society determines the rules that determine under which circumstances a patient can claim medical services
breyer indicated three topics to be important in moving towards explicit
- cost effectiveness
- patient age: if people are older, they should have less priority: should you treat people differently?
- novelty: innovation: should we pay extra for it?
hard rationing
if you can not have it publicly, you cannot have it
soft rationing
if you cannot have it publicly; you may be able to buy it elsewhere
supply side rationing
restricts the supply of care
- budget constraints, limiting numbers of doctors
demand side rationing
restricts the demand of care
- limiting the types of health care interventions covered by health insurance
different scenarios effect waiting times (koopmanschap)
- people stay the same, health outcome doesnt change if they wil be treated later or sooner
- waiting times get worse, but when you are treated, you will be completely healthy
- it will take longer to get back to completely healthy
- the effect of the operation is not the samen anymore. complete health will not be achieved
Conceptual framework of waiting time (OECD)
- Emergency arrivals will lead to fast care
- Through GP, whether or not to place a person on a waiting list
- two systems when allowed to see a specialist
- health status and severity will determine if you will be placed on the waiting list
- the longer the list, the longer the time -> specialist will put less people on the list
emergency treatment
first sign of distribution based on need. You will be helped right away
positive aspects waiting
- reduces need to use other rationing mechanisms
- longer waiting induces lower demand
- unnecessary care is restricted
- prioritisation
- can reduce refferals
waiting negative aspects
- loss of quality of life during waiting
- health state may worsen
- recovery time may increase with waiting time
- higher medical costs due to worse cases
- dissatisfaction in society
- uncertainty in patients about when they will be treated
optimal waiting times
long enough to discourage demand but short enough to limit negative aspects from waiting
problem optimal waiting times
differs per disease, situation and individual.
what works to reduce waiting times?
- supply side expansion: reducing budgetary/capacity restraints, rewarding productivity
- demand side reduction: less referrals, less demand
- regulations: improving utilization facilities, maximum waiting time guarantees, choice
Hidden demand
becomes visible when waiting times are reduces
Influence of reduced waiting times on demand
demand increases; hidden demand
however, the increase in demand is relatively small (Martin and smith)
Lower the amount of waiting time (Siciliani and Hurst)
we can lower the amount of waiting time by increasing the amount of physicians working in the system.
however, very expensive
Combined policies
with sanctions and competition the effect on waiting times will be strong
Consequences maximum waiting time
We are transferring the low need people to the high priority group. Not because of the fact they need the help, because they are waiting to long. bad thing
Dutch waiting times
- waiting times important topic in the netherlands during 90s
- more restrictions in quantities and prices through
- deliberate rationing to limit care consumption; budget
- 1994; fee for service abolished
- 1995: number of specialist positions fixed
- shortage in personnel in mid 90s
- waiting times became source of dissatisfaction
Waiting list fund
-implementation in 1997
- specific subsidy to reduce waiting lists
- evaluation showed however that it had almost no effect on the waiting lists and times
- production and demand increased
- perverse incentives: it was profitable to have long waiting lists
wny less waiting after 2000?
- system changes; lifting budget restrictions and regulated competition
- caused decreasing waiting times
other dutch measures after 2000
- transparency of waiting times; but people hardly acted on it
- changing rigid referral flows of GP’s; making them aware of differences in waiting times, but proved difficult
- raising clinical thresholds
- better organisation within hospitals; optimal use of capacity
recent dutch figures
many waiting times reasonable and within treek norms
but some waiting times still too long; youth/mental health care
is waiting a health hazard
longer waiting times for emergency and urgent procedures are associated with worse health outcomes
different scenario’s when treatment is postponed (Koopmanschap)
- people stay the same, doesnt change if they will be treated later or sooner
- things get worse, but when you are treated, you will be completely healthy again
- will get to the completely healthy again but it will take them longer to get there
- the effect of the operation will be the samen, but you will never get to the situation where you were before. Because you had to wait longer
what should determine priority?
- severity when presenting to doctor
- forecast of health with and without treatment
- cost-effectiveness of treatment
- age
- having dependents
- work status
- culpability (debt)
- reciprocity
- willing to pay
possible explanations for socio-economic inequity (OECD)
- people with higher SES engage more actively with the system and exercise pressure when there are long delays
- may have better social netwotks and use them to gain priority
- may have a lower probability of missing scheduled appointments
- may articulate their wishes and needs better and more forcefully
Hurst (2004) countries with and without waiting imes
the countries which do not report waiting times, on average spend more in health care, have higher capacity and implement more frequently forms of activity-based funding for hospitals and fee for service systems for doctors
Hurst (2005) demand and supply
demand: health status of population, state of medical technology
supply: public and private capacity and the productivity with which the capacity is used
employee-clinics
- possible way to attract additional funding for health care
- aimed at a group whose time is valuable for employers
- employers willing and able to pay for expanding hospital capacity
- efficient and equitable