Reflections on the role of health economics units regarding national health care systems

This texts aims to introduce some reflections on the role and relevance of health economics units (HEUs) regarding national health care systems. The starting points are the core aspects of this knowledge field and its contribution to health care management, to give rise to considerations on the role and relevance of such units. Matters such as the health care managers' and political leaders' knowledge on health economics, the need for HEUs to take simultaneous action at various levels in the organization of a qualified multidisciplinary technical body, as well as the technical and political nature of the work, their possibilities and limits for action, their aspects, and their relationship with external research groups. Finally, the work of a specialized internal health economics team is one of the means to qualify the decision-making process in public health care organizations, to optimize the use of resources and their proper equitable allocation.