Health Affairs
Jonathan S. Skinner
Health economics as a profession has grown exponentially in the past half-century, but not everyone agrees on what health economics is. Many physicians think that health economists spend their days tabulating prices for cost-effectiveness studies. I once was called by a large pharmaceutical company seeking to recruit a health economist. Puzzled as to why any profitable company would want to employ me, I asked what they meant by “health economics.” With a sigh, the recruiter responded: “To prepare a business case for marketing new drugs.”