Funding arrangements for pharmaceuticals: can economic evaluation promote efficiency?

Abstract

The media coverage of health resource allocation, even in the "quality" press, is generally simplified, reducingthe issue to winners and losers in political terms, and rarely providing any in-depth analysis of policy initiatives.Policies are generally analysed in terms of how difficult they will be for politicians to "sell" and the effect theywill have on electoral success rather than the impact they will have on the health of the population, on resourceallocation or on equity of access (Haas et al. 2001). The recent media attention on the Pharmaceutical BenefitsAdvisory Committee is a case in point.