Care With Constraints: The Efficient Production of Health

Award Year: 2003	Investigator: Alan Garber	Budget: $274,100	Categories: Health Economics
Abstract: Although Americans spend much more per capita on health care than do citizens of other wealthy nations, they do not appear to be healthier. Physician and economist Alan M. Garber, M.D., Ph.D. addresses the issue of productivity in health care delivery in his project, Care with Constraints: The Efficient Production of Health. Building on his past work and the work of others, Dr. Garber takes a fresh look at how productivity is defined and measured; how it is influenced by health care delivery and financing structures, regulatory mechanisms, politics and technological innovation; and how it varies across nations and for the treatment of specific diseases. By better understanding barriers to productivity, Dr. Garber expects to shed light on how health care resources can be used more effectively. His work should reveal how other considerations, such as special interests, influence policymakers to take actions that run counter to the goal of increasing productivity.