ABSTRACT
This chapter applies economic principles to analyse a few key issues in health care and primary health care that have important implications for primary health-care providers, government and consumers in Hong Kong and other Asia-Pacific regions with similar financing and delivery patterns. It discusses the question of the type of health-care and their relations with health-care spending and the health status of their residents. The chapter provides an analysis of the demand for primary health-care services and health insurance. It tackles the issues of health care cost containment. Health economists are interested to ascertain which types of health systems are most desirable: public, private-for-profit, private-nonprofit or others? Equity in health care has different meanings. Some define it as access to a package of basic health-care services regardless of ability to pay. Neither 'need' nor 'want' is synonymous with the economic concept of demand': what consumers are willing to consume at a given price.
