General Economics of Health

Abstract

Since the Resource available to the health services are limited, and the potential needs of patients are unlimited, some allocation of resource is essential. This problem has now become widely recognized but the main perception realized it when the service was first introduced in the cost of Health (1952) Robert and Wrote : 1 I can not share the facile optimizer which believe that the straits in which the Health service finds itself are only ‘teething troubles’ and that there are no difficulties which human ingenuity can not surmount. On the contrary I believe that the problem is by its very nature insoluble. From the practical point of view the task of the medical profession and the administration will be to determine how our limited resources can be put to the best use, free and comprehensive health service is a noble ideal, but one which the country cannot under existing conditions attain. This axiom holds good for India also.