Resources are inevitably scarce and hard choices have to be made. Health economics, as you will see in this book, is about helping to make those choices in a way that improves people's health and the way services are delivered. The book provides insight into the economic methods that are used to promote public health policies, analyse health care delivery and shape health sector reforms.

Unlike other books in this area, Introduction to Health Economics takes an international perspective, considering public and private health systems across countries with different income levels.

The book examines:

• Supply and demand
  
  
• Markets
  
  
• Health system financing
  
• Economic evaluation