Health care markets: Their morphology, behaviour and regulation

This article analyses the markets for health care-related goods and services. Particular attention is devoted to three of those markets: medical services, public and private hospital services, and pharmaceuticals. These three markets -which, taken together, account for between 70% and 80% of total health-care operating expenditures- have structures that are characterized by imperfect competition, marked externalities in terms of the consumption of health care, and a high degree of interdependence.