Hcs/440 Individual Essay

According to jhsph.edu, “health economics is an applied field of study that allows for the systemic and rigorous examination of the problems faced in promoting health for all. And health economics aims to understand the behavior of individuals, health care providers, public and private organizations, and governments in decision making” (Howard, n.d.). Overall, health care economics are important to patient care in the aspect of becoming a completely satisfaction based institution. For example, some hospitals receive additional funding from Medicate if the hospital has a high patient satisfaction rating. It also blows my mind that of most countries, the U.S. spends the most money on healthcare, and still has a very high rate of infant mortality

Health care economics studies such issues as demand for medical care, pharmaceutical prices, competition among health care providers and insurers, and financing of health care services. Castor Collins has put together a plan which will help solve many issues facing the organization. The plan is built to maximize profit for the company and minimize the risk of poor choices provided to individuals who will cause the organization to fall.

In the United States, health care has become a huge expense and has threatened the economy; additional measures need to be taken to address the rising cost of care. An individual spends an estimated eight thousand dollars a year in health care expenditures. Therefore, we need to recognize that how a physician reimbursement for payment has a vast impact on the economy and the rising cost of health care.

People have many desires, among then good health, but there is a lack of resources to provide all things to all people. Some people would consider resources when talking about health care economics; could include good health, education and access to financial means to afford health care costs or insurance premiums. In the presence of this scarcity, someone, or some process, must decide what mixture of goods and services to produce, what quantity of each is to be produced, and how to allocate the production to participate in the economy. Access and use of available resources can impact one health. “Individuals can undertake a variety of actions to achieve their desired level of health, which is constrained by physical factors and is subject to various risks. People’s choices about living location, work, and diet, recreation, over the counter medication, recreational drug use and formal health care can all affect their health status. Perhaps, startlingly, studies of factors that determine health in affluent societies indicate that changes in lifestyle choices and status such as environment, income, education, and cigarette consumption outweigh the contribution of changes in health care services.” (Answers.com, retrieved 4/6/09)

I personally feel the affect economics have on healthcare or the lack there of, can never be explained any clearer; unless you are experiencing it yourself.

Price elasticity of demand measures the responsiveness of demand after a change in a product's own price. () healthcare insurance is in a high demand, ever since, President Obama’s pass the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the price of healthcare insurance has increase in quantity with high response to changes in price. President Obama’s healthcare (Affordable Care Act) was design to accommodate every citizens with some form of healthcare

The topic I have chosen is the history of health care in the United States. We have obviously come a long way in the field of health care. We have undergone many changes and endured some great debates on how we should go about providing health care to the U.S. citizens. How people go about receiving health care varies by country and on the individual. It can be influenced by the economic and social standing of the country including the kind of health policies in place. Everyone has different policies and plans for their personal goals for their health care within society. Organizations of health care are made to meet health needs of the population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a well-functioning health care system requires a robust financing mechanism; a well-trained and adequately-paid workforce; reliable information on which to base decisions and policies; and well maintained health facilities and logistics to deliver quality medicines and technologies. Health care can significantly help a country’s economy.

This worldwide phenomenon has been brought into focus by various health care reforms and other system-level developments (Farrar, Ryan, Ross, and Ludbrook, 2000). Meaning there are more claims on resources than there are resources available, some form of priority setting must occur. This making resources are scarce and there is a need, regardless of how many resources are available in total, to make choices about what to fund and what not to fund.

Reasons why health care costs are high and continue to increase includes the rate of growth of health care spending continuing to significantly outpace the rate of GDP growth, which means medical costs increases outpace inflation. Furthermore, healthcare costs are still an issue is because of lack of well-developed competitive markets. People do not have the option to directly pay for the health care cost, therefore, they are disconnected from making informed decisions about their health care costs. In addition, patients not being able to be the central actors in the medical marketplace continues to make this topic an issue. Moreover, patients and market places are not the center stage, however, if these two influence are given more focus, costs of health care can get under

Health care is viewed to be a public good and its demand and supply is not determined by the forces of the market. The major problem that people face is the cost of treating ailments that require special treatment. With the

These past 10 weeks have been eye opening. In fact, I never realized how important economics, legislative changes and policies are within the world of healthcare. All three of these terms relate to on another in a unique way. In other words, they all work together to either help or destroy healthcare itself.

The primary focus of this article was to inform its readers of the multiple aspects of the health care system in the United States as a whole. Within this article, the subjects of health care that are reviewed are a) the US government’s position as the insurer for roughly 60 percent of the healthcare spending in the US via the public sector, b) the analysis of the funding for government health care programs such as Medicare, Medicall, and Medicaid and c) the programs in place for the health care of children and program administration for war veterans. The author discusses health care policy being at the forefront of world economics and modern medical science as it sets in motion governing policies and procedure associated with the financial funding and pharmaceutical appropriation of health care insurance.

In this paper the author will describe the history of health care economics along with the evolution and timeline of health care funding. Gaining insight from economical terms can assist with understanding the history and future changes; terms such as, elasticity, inelasticity, supply and demand. Health care costs are changing over the years and by understanding the history of health care economics will help individuals be prepared for future amendments.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that the U.S. health care spending has grown more rapidly than any other sector of the economy. In 2015 U.S health care spending grew 5.8 percent, reaching $3.2 trillion or $9,990 per person. Health care spending accounts for 17.8 percent of the nation’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product)("National Health Expenditures," ). Today’s health care systems is not only complex, there is a significance difference from what it used to be in past years. What are the factors that are driving these shifts? The changes are many and represent the major shifts involved fee-for-service to value base reimbursement, nurse and physician shortages, technology advancements, and we can’t leave out the Affordable Care

Health Care in United States is more expensive because the demand is high. Health care facility in United States is provided by many organizations where private sectors are mostly involved. According to WHO, United States spends more on health care services than any other country, exceeding $2.6 trillion, or about 18 percent of gross domestic product. The healthcare demand elasticity varies as the demand for health insurance and health services product varies. We can see that when the health care services like regular doctor visit, general checkup is too costly then the demand decreases as people are less interested in preventive care but the people are forced to hospital in emergency situation by which the emergency services of the hospital have high demand. Some health-care suppliers have significant market power which will help to compare the health cost throughout the country. Delivery system and market environment also influence the demand and supply response to a change in price. There is increased demand on public health system and on medical and social system. Higher prices in the product will reduce the quantity supplied or simply there is decrease in supply. The healthcare price elasticity doesn’t change drastically as other industry does but the price changes as the elasticity of demand and supply increases or decreases (Hicks, L.L. (2014). Health care demand was increased drastically in 20th century as compared to earlier period. The main forces that influenced health care demand were scientific basis of medicine, specialization in medicine, urbanization and emergence of modern hospital. Heath care demand nowadays is influenced by several forces like globalization, information revolution and involvement of private company in healthcare delivery (Liu Su & Chollet Deborah. (2006).