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SUMMARY In this paper an attempt is made to use the methodology of economics and operations research for determining the optimum allocation of resources among different methods of preventing or curing diseases. First, after comparing the different indices proposed to measure the output of health services, a very simple one is adopted: the number of deaths. The objective of health planning is assumed to be the minimization of the number of deaths. Next, the optimum distribution of resources between prevention and cure of one particular disease is studied in some detail, and a numerical example is presented. Finally, the generalization of this model to include several diseases, under both static and dynamic conditions, is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relative efficiency of several basically different health care systems by considering their market structure and its implication on the price and output of health care services.
The present article evaluates relative efficiency of four alternative health care systems; namely, the physician controlled non-profit hospital, the proprietary hospital, consumer controlled hospital and the government controlled hospitals. The analysis used in the study utilizes the theories of economics of cooperation. The scope of the study is limited only to the analysis of the nature of the market structure and its implications on the price and output of health care services and the costs and benefits associated with the zero individual user costs. Our conclusions are that: 1. The price and output tends to be close to the socially optimum level under the open-member consumers' coop hospitals; whereas the de facto closed-member producers' coop for the staff physician (as in the U.S.), output tends to be suboptimal and the price tends to be supra optimal. The equilibrium output and price for the proprietary hospitals and the hospitals under the British-Swedish systems can be shown to fall somewhere between these two extremes. 2. Furthermore, if the individual user cost is reduced to zero through the government finance or insurance coverage, the social cost of providing health care and the waste of resources tends to be larger under the proposed U.S. plans than under the hypothetical model and British-Swedish system, largely due to the inelastic supply response of the existing health care industry in the U. S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]