Victor R. Fuchs, whose comprehensive grasp of the challenges facing the United States health care system, and eloquence in explaining those challenges to policymakers and the general public, made him what many called the “dean” of American health care economists, died on Saturday at his home on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
Dr. Fuchs was best known for a slim, erudite book published in 1975 with the attention-grabbing title “Who Shall Live?
Health, Economics and Social Choice.” He was among the first to articulate in clear, layman’s prose why the United States was in the midst of rapidly rising health care costs, while costs in other countries stayed manageable.
The book has become required reading among physicians, health economists and anyone interested in the knotty issue of American health care, and it has never been out of print.
Dr. Fuchs showed that the real problem facing the country was not health care coverage but health care costs; America, he wrote, was spending more and more without achieving better health outcomes.
Persons:
Victor R, Fuchs, Fred
Organizations:
Stanford University, Health
Locations:
United States, Palo Alto, Calif, America