Achieving better value for money in health care.

"This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

Patterns of health care spending growth -- Market mechanisms and the use of health care resources -- Improving health care system performance through better co-ordination of care -- Ensuring efficiency in pharmaceutical expenditures -- Using ICT to monitor and improve quality in health care -- The impact of user charges on health care.

Rising public health care spending remains a problem in virtually all OECD and EU member countries. As a consequence, there is growing interest in policies that will ease this pressure through improved health system performance. This report examines selected policies that may help countries better achieve the goal of improved health system efficiency and thus better value for money. Drawing on multinational data sets and case studies, it examines a range policy instruments. These include: the role of competition in health markets; the scope for improving care coordination; better pharmaceutical pricing policies; greater quality control supported by stronger information and communication technology in health care; and increased cost sharing.--Publisher's description.