Health Economics in Iceland

Abstract

The paper describes the base of health economics. Health, well-being, accidents and death are prevalent concepts in the health sector. Health economics is concerned with analysing the financial impact of improvements. Health economics has not been given much attention in Iceland. This paper describes basic economic models for production in health care and the major indicators of the health sector in Iceland are explained, e.g. public expenditures and labour participation. The health sector in Iceland is compared with the health sectors of other countries, primarily the Nordic countries, but also the OECD countries. The situation in health care in Iceland is good, but the health expenditures are high compared to other countries, particularly in light of the relative young age of the Icelandic population. Finally, four evaluation methods in the health sector are briefly demonstrated, i.e. minimum-costs-analysis, cost-effectiveness-analysis, cost-utility-analysis and cost-benefit-analysis.