COST CONTAINMENT VS QUALITY IN HEALTH CARE

The health care industry is recession-proof and its costs steadily increase, despite the stagnation of other sectors of the economy, according to a new Financial Times Management report which examines the various cost-containment measures being adopted to constrain health care prices.

The report's authors, Eleanor Feldbaum and Miriam Hughesman, concentrate on the cost-containment efforts and quality of health services in the UK, France, Germany and the USA, since they believe their health systems represent a broad spectrum of methods of financing and regulating the provision of health care.

The UK stands at one end of the spectrum, with a health system supported primarily by general revenues, while the USA is at the other end, dominated by the private insurance sector. Between them lie France, where health costs are paid by worker contributions to social security, and Germany, where contributions are made to about 1,200 insurance funds. The provision of health care varies between the UK system, where the National Health Service pays for and manages health care services, and the USA, which relies on private, independent health care providers. France and germany have independent ambulatory services, and their in-patient or hospital services are dominated by the public sector.