Relationship Between Employment, Health Coverage And Costs, And Access For Care And Health Outcomes

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

Economists also look at the microeconomic market within the United States and how the market affects the overall funding of health care. Economists also use macroeconomics to how the changes in the economy as a whole affect the price and funding of health care and how the trends of the economy

In today’s society, there is still a great struggle with health care disparities and many lives are affected by the lack of this fundamental program in our society. There are millions of people who die each year because they are unable to afford quality healthcare. The debate still continues about healthcare inequalities, what causes this disparity and who are affected by it. Health care is more of a necessity rather than a luxury and even though skeptics may argue to the latter, it only underlines the importance of the need for the wellbeing and care of individuals. There are several factors that could contribute to the lack of health care in the United States which ranges from but not limited to race, gender, socio- economic status, and lack of insurance coverage. The truth is there is a great disproportion between who can really afford quality healthcare as appose to individuals who have it. One would imagine that an employed individual would easily afford quality healthcare but we could be no further from the truth, since one’s economic status is an essential determinant to its affordability.

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other industrialized nation in the world and yet, in many respects, its citizens are not the healthiest. Although, the U.S. is one of the wealthiest nations, its citizens lack access to the adequate medical care they deserve. The Health Reform Law will hopefully give a long awaited boost to the use of financial incentives in wellness

The marginal analysis in relation to health care economics is a way of thinking about the optimal allocation of resources and making decisions at “the margin” (Henderson, 2015). Self-interest relates to economic decision makers’ personal interest that affects the decisions they make (Henderson, 2015). The markets and pricing concept is used to efficiently allocate the resources that are considered scarce (Henderson, 2015). The supply and demand concept is used as a tool in performing economic analysis (Henderson, 2015). Competition creates an environment where resource owners are forced to use their resources to promote the highest possible satisfaction of society (Henderson, 2015). Efficiency is used to measure how well resources are being used to promote social welfare (Henderson, 2015). Market failure is when the free market fails to promote the efficient use of resources (Henderson, 2015). Comparative advantage explores people benefit from the voluntary exchange when production decisions are based on opportunity cost (Henderson,

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

The demand for medical care has a consumption component and an investment component. The consumption component is the part that you expect to use lets say on a yearly basis. You probably go to the doctor 's office about once a year for a checkup. The investment component is the part that you hope doesn 't happen but just in case you will be able to finance for the occasion. "Individuals who are willing to invest in a college education are the same individuals who are willing to spend time and money on improving their health (Henderson p.150). One of the most efficient ways to produce health is to educate oneself. The more knowledge you know about your own health the less you will have to go to the physician 's office. Education has been proven statistically to lower demand for healthcare. The ‘Elasticity for education is approximately equal to one-tenth (Weiss Lecture 9/9/99). This means for every ten-percent increase in medical care there is a one- percent increase in health. A proper diet and daily exercise are also important to improving ones health. Both of these factors have produced positive elasticity measures as well. The are two factors that affect the demand for medical care. The first is the patient factor. The patient factor is composed of three variables. A patient 's health status, demographic characteristics and economic status are the three variables that are the most efficient way to produce health. Patients most often seek treatment for

The United States health care business is one of the largest economies in the world. The U.S. health care costs are 2.5 times greater than the mean of other countries making up for a significant amount of the U.S. spending. Higher spending on medical expenses means insurance companies have to raise premiums and out of pocket expenses in order to meet these costs. The more spending that occurs, the more insurance providers have to charge all of their consumers. Medical care in the U.S. is huge industry. Insurance providers and medical manufactures have been taking

Healthcare can be complex and have many parts with ensuring the most quality and efficient care that are being recommended to all care providers. The economics in healthcare is a study of what goes on behind decision making and what people value and how they make their decisions based on the things they value. The goal of an economic study in that regard is to find out how to make health more valuable than other things people could be spending their time, money and energy on when looking at the access economic policy recommendations for healthcare stakeholders.

The term population health is fairly new and there is no concise definition that is used for the time being. Hence, the authors Kindig and Stoddard proposed a definition that would be more clear cut for policymakers and academics alike. Their definitive rationale is to stimulate profound critiques and debate that would result in a definitive interpretation of the term and the consistency of use. The term population health, according to Kindig “the aggregate health outcome of health adjusted life expectancy (quantity and quality) of a group of individuals, in an economic framework that balances the relative marginal returns from the multiple determinants of health. These groups are often geographic populations such as nations or communities,

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

Economists have long explored the relationship between medical service consumption and health insurance demand, and found that they are dependent upon each other (DING Jihong, ZHU Minglai, 2007). The relationship between the demand of health insurance and the demand of health care of a nation has a strong relationship between, the reason lies behind the fact that health insurance is not bought by a customer in order to obtain a good, but as a mean of been able to pay health related services in the future (Feldstein, 1973). Having health insurance also affects the demand of health care, specifically when looking at people that could use health care services based on the fact that they’re assured and use the health care as a prepaid service. Since health insurance twists the real price that people pay to utilize health care, there is a great possibility for a moral hazard (Arrow, 1963; Manning et al., 1987).

Barro (1996) argues that there is a connection between the health levels of a country and its economy. The connection is two-way, forming a feedback loop. Improved health outcomes allow people to be more productive. More productive people earn more, and are therefore able to pay for better health care, and this becomes a cycle in society. Thus, societies with higher levels of health care have healthier and therefore more productive workers.

People have always been in search of wellness. Hundreds of years ago, this search was easier said than done, nonetheless, humans were continuously looking for a way to extend mortality. Until the early 1900s, there was not the plethora of institutions and hospitals that are so accessible to citizens today. Even though hospitals took root in the communities across the globe, there has been a recently wane of hospital usage in the past few decades. This shift in hospital use is due to a myriad of reasons such as cost of healthcare and the rapid development of technology, all accompanied by certain advantages and disadvantages.