Seanm
pfm Member
Recently came across the idea of “Baumol’s cost disease”, which offers an interesting perspective on NHS costs. Due to the nature of the work, the cost of care labour can’t really be reduced by efficiency savings, technological innovations, automation and so on, so as productivity rises in other sectors, and the cost of labour falls, the cost of the “product” of care appears to rise, relative to other products. While it looks like care is becoming more and more unaffordable, actually this is, to some degree, a sign that the economy is becoming stronger overall, and better able to devote resources to health and other forms of care.
There’s probably a snappier way of explaining it.
There’s probably a snappier way of explaining it.