1st semester

Learning objectives

After attending and studying this module, students are expected to:

• distinguish the fundamental economic principles of economics that apply to health economics,
• describe the main characteristics of private and public goods,
• analyze key concepts such as induced demand, moral hazard, adverse selection, asymmetric information, and their implications for the health system
• discuss the consequences of insurance on both individual and social well-being.
• describe the content of social policy and identify the main factors influencing its development
• recognize the features of basic social policy models
• distinguish the main welfare state regimes in the world,
• recognize the basic characteristics of the welfare state in Greece, explain the concept of the health system,
• distinguish differences in the organization, delivery and financing of health services between individual health systems,
• know the main causes of the increase in health costs in a country,
• know basic facts of public and private health spending in Greece,
• distinguish the basic inputs of the hospital production process such as personnel, facilities, machinery and raw materials,
• justify the need to increase the efficiency of hospital units,
• understand that various recent reform efforts in Greece and/or elsewhere may lead to increased efficiency in the health system,
• know the concepts of cost minimization analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis and cost-benefit analysis, as well as the theoretical background of each method,
• understand the differences between economic evaluation methods, as well as their main advantages and disadvantages,
• know the basic types of costs of a program such as direct, indirect, and hidden costs, as well as basic concepts such as fixed or variable costs, average costs, marginal costs, etc.,
• understand the concept of health-related quality of life, and its importance in measuring health outcomes in economic assessment,
• understand the importance of critical evaluation of economic evaluation,
• understand how economic evaluation data is used in decision-making on the allocation of health resources.

Course content

• The investigation of the financial figures related to the production, financing and efficiency of Health Services, so that the cost-effectiveness ratio is maximized.
• Introductory concepts and necessity of studying the Economics of Health.
• Basic Principles of Health Economics, Demand and supply and the consumer's theory of the demand for health services, Methods of economic evaluation in medicine (cost – benefit – effectiveness – utility), quality of life as a parameter of health measurement,
• Macroeconomic approach to health expenditure.
• Allocation of human and material resources of the health system.
• Cost, budget and management of hospital production.