Market failure, policy failure and other distortions in chronic disease markets Watts, Jennifer J. and Segal, Leonie 2009, Market failure, policy failure and other distortions in chronic disease markets, BMC health services research, vol. 9, Article number 102, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-9-102. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads watts-marketfailure-2009.pdf Published version application/pdf 96.04KB 333 Title Market failure, policy failure and other distortions in chronic disease markets Author(s) Watts, Jennifer J. orcid.org/0000-0001-8095-8638 Segal, Leonie Journal name BMC health services research Volume number 9 Season Article number 102 Start page 1 End page 6 Total pages 6 Publisher BioMed Central Place of publication London, England Publication date 2009 ISSN 1472-6963 Keyword(s) market failure policy failure chronic disease markets Summary Background: The increasing prevalence of chronic disease represents a significant burden on most health systems. This paper explores the market failures and policy failures that exist in the management of chronic diseases. Discussion: There are many sources of market failure in health care that undermine the efficiency of chronic disease management. These include incomplete information as well as information asymmetry between providers and consumers, the effect of externalities on consumer behaviour, and the divergence between social and private time preference rates. This has seen government and policy interventions to address both market failures and distributional issues resulting from the inability of private markets to reach an efficient and equitable distribution of resources. However, these have introduced a series of policy failures such as distorted re-imbursement arrangements across modalities and delivery settings. Summary: The paper concludes that market failure resulting from a preference of individuals for 'immediate gratification' in the form of health care and disease management, rather than preventative services, where the benefits are delayed, has a major impact on achieving an efficient allocation of resources in markets for the management of chronic diseases. This distortion is compounded by government health policy that tends to favour medical and pharmaceutical interventions further contributing to distortions in the allocation of resources and inefficiencies in the management of chronic disease. Language eng DOI 10.1186/1472-6963-9-102 Field of Research 119999 Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified Socio Economic Objective 970111 Expanding Knowledge in the Medical and Health Sciences HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2009, BioMed Central Free to Read? Yes Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30054608 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Health and Social Development Open Access Collection Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Thu, 25 Jul 2013, 15:24:58 EST Fri, 26 Jul 2013, 10:19:56 EST Fri, 26 Jul 2013, 10:43:13 EST Thu, 19 Sep 2013, 10:25:31 EST Wed, 17 Jun 2015, 12:56:15 EST Thu, 18 Jun 2015, 12:41:49 EST Tue, 05 Dec 2017, 12:41:24 EST Fri, 07 Sep 2018, 16:35:24 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 14 times in TR Web of Science Cited 15 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 611 Abstract Views, 333 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Thu, 25 Jul 2013, 15:24:57 EST