Economics and Health Care

Paper Summary:

This paper uses the application of economic principles of addressing competition, understanding costs and becoming aware of the real value of the goods and services in the field of health care. It reports how even in the not-for-profit hospital setting, there still exists a necessity to maximize the revenues and to reduce costs. It shows how it is the goal of the managers and health care providers to devise methods so as to become low-cost providers without being forced to lower the quality standards. However, the paper discusses how the relationship between the patients and doctors is quite different from the normal relationship between buyers and sellers. The paper concludes with the role of the pharmacist who, while applying economic evaluation methods, must also use humanistic evaluation techniques.

From the Paper:

"Common people, from the common sense perspective, believe that it is not possible to buy and sell health care like other goods and services. Economists, however, analyze and differentiate the health care and market from a theoretical perspective, with use of the market failure theory. The economists visualize that markets fail due to lack of perfect information on right goods at the lowest possible cost. In case of health care severe information problems are being confronted that makes the rational purchasing decisions difficult. It is to be noted that is not always effective and possible that the patient is in a position to explore all the possible available ways of treating oneself and hence finds it really difficult to choose from amongst the most cost effective approach which would be most appropriate. The medical information is technically filled with complexities that it is not possible to be understood by a layman and this is made worse by the fact that several illnesses do not repeat again. Besides the health care has strong externality influences than that of other goods and services. The cost of caring a sick person may entail heavy financial burden on the patient's family."

More papers on Economics and Health Care:

• Analytical Essay # 136066 : "Economics and Healthcare"
• Article Review # 140639 : "Economics And The Health Industry"
• Analytical Essay # 85940 : "Economic Principles and Health Care"

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