What Kind of Health Service do we Really Need?. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 140 1980

Tussing, A. Dale (1980) What Kind of Health Service do we Really Need?. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 140 1980. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

It is a privilege to be invited by this Association to address such a distinguished audience. Permit me to begin this afternoon by describing the nature and progress of my work at the Economic and Social Research Institute. As some of you know, I spent 1975 and 1976 at the Institute, doing research that in 1978 resulted in my paper on expenditures in education. I returned to the Institute last September, to undertake a project on health care expenditures. I have spent the time since September acquainting myself with the Irish health care system; acting as a consultant to the Oireachtais Joint Committee on state-Sponsored Bodies, on their study of the Voluntary Health Insurance Board; developing a report on "Poverty and Health" for the Irish Team, under the Institute of Public Administration, of a European Community study of poverty; and, as may not surprise you, trying to defend my paper on educational expenditures. Hence I have no results to report to you on health care expenditures. What I will have to say today is based on what is already generally known about the Irish system of health care, together with my understanding of health economics. I reserve the right to modify later the positions I take today. What kind of health care system do we need and want? I will offer the economists' answer: a system which is equitable in its treatment of persons, and efficient in its use of resources. As you will see, these terms are elastic enough to caver the preservation of health and life.

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