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Demand For Medical Care Essay

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Demand for Medical Care
The demand for medical care is derived from our demand for good health. Michael Grossman was the first to do econometric research on this topic. “Grossman’s work established two approaches for consideration. In the first, medical care is viewed as an input in the production function for health, and in the second, as an output produced by medical care providers (Henderson, p.142).” There are two main factors that determine the demand for medical care. The first is the patient factor. This includes a patient’s health status, demographic characteristics and economic status. The second is the physician factor. This is an interesting topic because it introduces the principal (patient)-agent (physician) problem. We are …show more content…

This is a moral question that we need to answer is when do you stop? Thomas McKeown (1976) noticed that there was a secular decline in mortality rates. The quality of life was one of the major factors. There was an increase in income as well as education. The living standards and nutrition chipped in as well. The public health authorities improved sanitation. Which in return all lead to a decrease in diseases. An increase in technology also helped the cause. Diseases like cancer where slowed due to Chemotherapy and stricter regulations directed to corporations on dumping waste. (Henderson p.145) Genetics also play a major role in determining our health. Half of your genes come from your father and the other half from your mother. “There are two factors that play a critical role in determining the health of an individual: the risk of exposure to a particular disease and the ability of the individual to resist the disease (and recover from its consequences) once exposed (Henderson p.144).” If your father has high blood pressure then his siblings are susceptible to high blood pressure too. Now we will look at the determinants in the demand for medical care. Henderson defines demand as the sacrifice an individual is willing to make in order to obtain a given amount of a particular good or service. In other words you can’t always get what you want. Need rarely equals demand. Need is almost always greater than demand.

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