Coronavirus: Where Has All the Health Economics Gone?

Document Type : Perspective

Authors

1 Yunus Centre for Social Business & Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK

2 Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Abstract

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to unfold there is an untold number of trade-offs being made in every country around the globe. The experience in the United Kingdom and Canada to date has not seen much uptake of health economics methods. We provide some thoughts on how this could take place, specifically in three areas. Firstly, this can involve understanding the impact of lockdown policies on national productivity. Secondly, there is great importance in studying trade-offs with respect to enhancing health system capacity and the impact of the mix of private-public financing. Finally, there are key trade-offs that will continue to be made both in terms of access to testing and ventilators which would benefit greatly from economic appraisal. In short, health economics could – and we would argue most certainly should – play a much more prominent role in policy-making as it relates to the current as well as future pandemics.

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. Twitter feed of Professor Trisha Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh, 2nd May 2020 onwards.
  2. Holmdahl I, Buckee C. Wrong but useful – what Covid-19 epidemiologic models can and cannot tell us. N Engl J Med. 2020. doi:10.1056/NEJMp2016822
  3. Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE): Coronavirus (COVID-19) response. https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response.
  4. Scottish Government COVID-19 Advisory Group. https://www.gov.scot/groups/scottish-government-covid-19-advisory-group/.
  5. Conseil scientifique Covid-19 (France). https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conseil_scientifique_Covid-19#Composition.
  6. Online la composizione del Comitato tecnico scientifico (Italy). http://www.salute.gov.it/portale/news/p3_2_1_1_1.jsp?lingua=italiano&menu=notizie&p=dalministero&id=4544
  7. Netherlands Outbreak Management Team. https://www.rivm.nl/en/novel-coronavirus-covid-19/omt.
  8. Constituido el Comité Científico Técnico COVID-19 (Spain).  https://www.geriatricarea.com/2020/03/23/constituido-el-comite-cientifico-tecnico-covid-19/.
  9. Karnon J. A simple decision analysis of a mandatory lockdown response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2020. doi:10.1007/s40258-020-00581-w
  10. Baker R, Donaldson C, Mason H, Jones-Lee M. Willingness to Pay for Health. Encylopedia of Health Economics. 2014;3:495-501.
  11. Donaldson C, Baker R, Mason H, et al. The social value of a QALY: raising the bar or barring the raise? BMC Health Serv Res. 2011;11:8. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-11-8
  12. Mossialos E, McGuire A, Anderson M, Pitchforth E, James A, Horton R. The future of the NHS: no longer the envy of the world? Lancet. 2018;391(10125):1001-1003. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30574-9
  13. National Institute for Health & Care Excellence. Chapter 39: Bed Occupancy. NICE Guideline 94; March 2018.
  14. Koptyug E. Bed capacity utilization in hospitals in Germany from 1998 to 2018. https://www.statista.com/statistics/578484/bed-capacity-utilization-hospitals-germany/. Published June 8, 2020.
  15. Ratcliffe J. Why it’s not health vs the economy in the COVID-19 crisis. Committee for Economic Development of Australia website. https://www.ceda.com.au/Digital-hub/Blogs/CEDA-Blog/March-2020/Why-it-is-not-health-vs-the-economy-in-the-COVID-19-crisis. Published March 30, 2020.
  16. Barkan R. Cuomo helped New York get into this mess. The Nation. March 30, 2020. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/covid-ny-hospital-medicaid/.
  17. Edwards A. COVID-19 tests: how they work and what’s in development. The Conversation. March 24, 2020. https://theconversation.com/covid-19-tests-how-they-work-and-whats-in-development-134479.
  18. Marsh S, Book R. Hertfordshire hospital forced to consider who should be refused oxygen. The Guardian. April 5, 2020.
  19.  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/hertfordshire-hospital-forced-to-consider-who-should-be-refused-oxygen.
  20. Hadorn DC. Setting health care priorities in Oregon: cost-effectiveness meets the rule of rescue. JAMA. 1991;265:2218-2225.
  21. Cancer patients in limbo as treatment and surgery is cut back to cope with coronavirus pressure. ITV News. March 26, 2020  https://www.itv.com/news/2020-03-26/coronavirus-outbreak-cancer-treatment-surgery-cut-back-surge-in-covid-19-patients/.
  22. Peacock S, Ruta D, Mitton C, Donaldson C, Bate A, Murtagh M. Using economics for pragmatic and ethical priority setting: two checklists for doctors and managers. BMJ. 2006;332:482-485. doi: 10.1136/bmj.332.7539.482
Volume 9, Issue 11
November 2020
Pages 466-468
  • Receive Date: 08 May 2020
  • Revise Date: 20 June 2020
  • Accept Date: 20 June 2020
  • First Publish Date: 01 November 2020