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Foreword: Nonfinancial Barriers To Health Care, Thomas Wm. Mayo

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Health care policy traditionally has been seen as a three-legged stool. Three interdependent variables-cost, quality, and access-have largely defined the domain of health policy. Ignore one of the variables, and the stool topples. It is not surprising, therefore, that health care policymakers have tended to view the problem of access to health care resources primarily in economic terms. Economic analysis of the access problem is useful because it gives policymakers a common methodology, vocabulary, and set of analytical tools that provide insights into the related problems of cost containment and quality, as well as the access issue. This in turn …