Historical background and prospects for the emergence of the history of health economics

Health economics as a discipline was formed and developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Its historical background is: ① the sharp increase in health costs in economically developed countries. After the Second World War, due to the rapid increase in the level of medical research and technology, diagnosis and treatment means and modernization of health facilities and equipment, the aging of the population, the dramatic increase in chronic diseases and people's demand for health care level and so on, resulting in a substantial increase in health care costs. For example, in many European countries, health-care expenditures accounted for about 4 per cent of gross national product in the 1950s and rose to 8 per cent by the end of the 1970s. In terms of growth rates, the share of health-care costs in the GNP of many countries increased by 1 per cent in the 1950s; by 1.5 per cent in the 1960s; and by 2 per cent in the 1970s. The high cost of health care is a heavy economic burden on the government, business owners, individual workers and families, objectively requiring an analysis of the reasons for the rapid growth of health costs and a search for ways to curb the growth of health costs. ② Socialization of health undertakings. After the Second World War, the scale of the health sector is getting bigger and bigger, more and more advanced technology and equipment, division of labor and specialization level is getting higher and higher, health care has developed into a considerable amount of capital and labor occupied by the "health industry" sector, occupies an important position in the social and economic life. Therefore, the study of the economic problems of the health sector has become an important subject of economic research. 1952, the Chronicle of the World Health Organization published a paper by the American Marda - "The Economic Aspects of Health", which is regarded as the first work on health economics. 1958, S.J. Mashkin published a paper titled "The Definition of Health Economics" on the Public ****health Report published in Washington, clearly put forward the definition of health economics. In 1958, S.J. Mashkin published a paper entitled "Definition of Health Economics" in Public **** Health Report published in Washington, D.C., which clearly defined health economics as "the science of studying the optimal use of investment in health" After the 1960s, the study of health economics was further carried out in Europe and the United States, and in 1968, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened the first international symposium on health economics in Moscow, and published a collection of essays entitled "The Economics of Health and Disease". The Economics of Health and Disease. Since then, health economics has entered a period of more extensive development. The issue of health economics has attracted attention for a long time. In the 3rd century B.C., the ancient Greek thinker Aristotle talked about the relationship between peasants and doctors in production and exchange, and in the 17th century, the English classical economist W. Gundry pointed out in his book Dedicated to the Wise (1691) that the health care costs spent on workers would bring about economic benefits. 1940, H.E. Siegrist published an article titled "Introduction to Medical Economics," arguing that medical economics should shed light on the obstacles that hinder modern health care. argued that medical economics should elucidate the various socio-economic conditions that impede the application of modern medicine, analyze the enormous losses to the national economy brought about by poverty and disease, and resolve the contradiction between the price of medical care and the affordability of patients