Importance Of Scarcity In Healthcare

Is the US Healthcare system truly reflective of a free market economy driven by supply and demand? Initially, one would be inclined to think yes. In an ideal world, a free market is one which is driven by individual innovation and the concept that hard-work and ingenuity will be bestowed with success. Indeed, the biggest advantage of a free market is that it places the power of choice into the hands of the people. There is freedom to choose how you want to spend your money, what you want to spend it on, and whom you want to spend it on. Do you want to see a physician regarding a yearly physical? Open the yellow pages. You will more than likely find over 100 general practitioners in your immediate area to choose from. Do you want to spend your money on preventative care, early screenings, vaccinations, etc? Or do you want to spend your money on medications after you are diagnosed with an ailment? The main idea behind a free market is that prices will regulate themselves. In regards to the US Healthcare system, it is questions like

The availability of healthcare is an extremely important issue in the United States. There are millions of Americans that are uninsured in the U.S. A high amount of uninsured people are from minority groups such as Hispanics and African-Americans. High deductible payments, the cost of prescription drugs, and lack of health insurance coverage cause many Americans to choose to live without insurance to save money for everyday expenses beside healthcare. Without health insurance, people do not have access to quality healthcare. Most citizens are aware of the issues in the healthcare system, but the disagreement comes when discussing how the best approach on ameliorating the system. Some believe that a more public and universal healthcare system is the best approach. Others believe that America works best through free enterprise and private institutions, and believe health insurance should be more privatized. However, health care has been shown to work best and be more available through proper public government control as it will allow for all Americans to have access to equal healthcare, in which money does not dictate health.

Economists use certain concepts to help better understand health care services and the determining factor in health care funding.

Supply and demand forms the most fundamental concept of economics. Whether you are a teacher, farmer, medical supply manufacturer, doctor or simply a consumer the fundamental foundation of supply and demand equilibrium is incorporated into the daily behaviors of our society. Consumers naturally look for the lowest price, while producer are influenced to expand outputs at greater cost. This is the same phenomenon in healthcare. With congress enacting the Affordable Care Act, many are seeking out the cheapest form of insurance, while at the same time wanting the greatest benefits.

When contemplating health care policy changes, several economic issues in health care must be considered. These include the financial issues affecting the health sector and have an impact on health policies. Policy makers face unending challenges due to the health sector revenues that are always rising. Another challenge is decreased funding and failure of the health insurance services.

I will compare the current health care system with the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that became law on March 23, 2010.   The current system, which is being phased out between 2011 and 2018 is increasingly inaccessible to many poor and lower-middle-class people. About 47 million Americans lack health insurance, an increase of more than two million people from 2005 (Rover, 2011) the increasingly complex warfare between insurers and hospitals over who pays the bills is gobbling up a great deal of money and the end result is that the United States pays roughly twice as much per

There are many factors that have influenced the changes of health care economics. Money and technology has definitely been the reason for the change of health care economics over the years. Money is want makes the economy evolve. There will be advancement in technology and there needs to be people are managing these to keep up with the changes. The U.S. has definitely progressed as far as influencing factors to change in new advancement of technology and medical care. Having a good financial manager in your organization will prepare for these upcoming advancements and changes. Money drives these advancements in

The health care system in America has inherent scarcity, as there are not enough health resources to meet all of the health

The rising healthcare cost is an issue that affects many working class Americans. Experts have tried to come up with different ways to make health care more affordable and easily accessible to all. Despite all the efforts and even after the Affordable Care Act, there are still millions of Americans without health insurance coverage and therefore unable to access the necessary medical care. According to a 2015 report by the U.S Census Bureau, there are over 33 million uninsured Americans. (“Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2014 - p60-253.pdf,” n.d.) The Affordable Care Act has unquestionably made healthcare more accessible and reduced the number of uninsured Americans. However, there are still millions of

One of the issues that is widely discussed and debated concerning the United States economy is the healthcare system. Unlike in the majority of developed and developing countries, the healthcare system in the United States is not public, meaning that the state does not provide free or cheap healthcare services. This paper addresses many of the factors contributing to the rising cost of healthcare.

Also, free healthcare will promote equality to all citizens by decreasing the number of economically challenged individuals in the society. Apparently, poor healthcare status relates to financial problems. Most of the world governments advocate for equal treatment of all citizens, fair distribution of resources, and bridging the gap between the poor and the rich (Gulliford and Myfanwy 37). The health care industry directly or indirectly affects every living individual in the US in one way or another. For instance, the poor citizens who are uninsured get excluded from accessing proper health services, or they end up being

Some major reasons that a free, unregulated market in medical care might night be optimal are: Imperfect information, asymmetric information, barriers to entry, and third-party payers.

Cost is a critical component of any health care system. Proper health care system ensures that a large part of the population can access good quality health care at low cost. If not well organized it might take a large part of national income and still not be able to serve a significant part of the population. The health care delivery system of United States is excellent compared to that of other countries; however, the health care alone takes 17% of gross domestic

Changing factors such as aging populations and new technologies becoming available are increasing expectations from people throughout the world, and decision makers must make rational choices to maximise benefits to population health whilst working with limited resources. Yothasamut et al (2009) summarise this by observing that "health care resources in every setting are always constrained, while unlimited demand is observed". The 'best' choices in the context of economics are the ones which maximise utility (individual satisfaction through consumption of goods) and welfare, the sum utility experienced by all individuals in society. Decision makers often have to seek satisfactory rather than optimal solutions, also known as working with 'bounded rationality' (Simon 1957 in Williams et al 2008), as it is important to pursue both efficiency and equity in the funding of health care. Therefore, it may be unsuitable to fund the most cost effective option if it sacrifices the equal distribution of benefits. Research in health economics can take a normative or positive approach and this reflects the balance needed between cost control and equity when making economic decisions. Positive economic research and analysis is concerned with 'how things are' and seeks to explain economic phenomena, whilst normative economic research and analysis is concerned with 'how things ought to be' and relies on value

Health care is important because it is needed in today’s world for people who need treatment but cannot afford it because of their financial situation. Everybody in this world is not rich. With this in mind, health care should no longer be something that citizens pay for. It is a doctor’s job to make sure their patients are healthy and leave much better than how they came. Without money, it is almost impossible to do that.