The Economics of Healthcare

You have been asked by a health care magazine to write a series of articles focusing on health care financial concepts. The articles will be included in five consecutive issues and will be geared towards readers with little knowledge of finance. You must ensure that the articles are both informative and engaging to your audience. You must also ensure that your articles relate financial principles to the health care industry.

I really enjoyed this article, as it went into effective financial planning. The 2 major categories of cost are total charges (the patient's bill) and the cost of providing services. These 2 costs can be defined mathematically in the following indices: average revenue per patient day and the cost per patient day.

There have been many studies performed focusing on the rising costs of health care and some of the findings state that the rising cost of healthcare premiums is a worldwide problem. However, I believe they are higher in the U.S. In 2015, U.S. health care costs were $3.2 trillion. That makes healthcare one of the largest U.S. industries, equaling 17.8 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in comparison to the late 1960s; where healthcare costs were only $27 billion, or 5% of the GDP, which averaged $9,990 per person each year. The main reason for the rising cost of healthcare is a combination of government policies and lifestyles changes. Examples included lack of coverage or costly coverage, lack of available coverage for

“The amount people pay for health insurance increased 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while income for the same period of time only increased 3 percent.” (Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). The rising cost of healthcare is a huge problem in America today. In this paper I will analyze the different issues and causes for the increase in cost.

There are 10 key economic concepts of health care. Each of the economic concepts is important when evaluating the different issues related to health care such as the increasing cost of health care. Henderson (2015), list the 10 concepts as follows: scarcity and choice, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, self-interest, markets and pricing, supply and demand, competition, efficiency, market failure, and comparative, advantage. The concept scarcity and choice address the issues related to the limited supply resources and the need to economize (Henderson, 2015). An illustration of the importance of the scarcity and choice concept is when there is a low quantity of available resources to meet the demand of individuals and rationing occurs. Opportunity cost emphasizes

Health care costs, or more specific, how the United States funds healthcare, has been an issue in this

The cost of health explains almost half of the budgets of the state from financing the Medicaid program to providing health care for the employees of the state and other less qualified population like the prisoners (Vanderbeaux, 2014). In America, thousands upon thousands of decisions concerning health care are made by State legislatures every year (Vanderbeaux, 2014). Some of those decisions involve how best to provide appropriate care more efficiently, and deciding on what age group of patients needs to be immunized (Vanderbeaux, 2014).

Traditionally the American health care system relied heavily a repayment model referred to as fee-for-service which is described as a form of repayment that generates a greater emphasis on the volume of patients seen rather than healthy outcomes produced under a physician’s care. The fee-for-service repayment method poses multiple issues such as: duplicating services which in turn renders some of the services unnecessary, utilization of expensive technology because of the revenue generation rather than as a valuable diagnostic tool and crowding caseloads to an unmanageable level in order to achieve highest level of reimbursement. The aforementioned events not only have the possibility of being unethical but also drive up the cost of health care in the United States. Currently, health care costs have not only increased, but the Office of the Actuary projected that U.S. healthcare spending will make up nearly 20 percent of the economy in 2019. One would argue that if as a country we are spending so much on health care that we should be a “healthier” nation, but this is not the case. Even though America continues to be the largest spender on health care, collectively we experience a lower life expectancy rate compared to other industrialized countries (hfma.com, 2011, p. 2). To assist with climbing health care rates healthcare purchasers have called for repayment reform. One such reform that has been on the forefront is Value-Based Health Care (VBH), also known as outcome

1A. Market failure is a situation in which the allocation of goods and services is not efficient. In any given market, the quantity of a product demanded by consumers does not equate to the quantity supplied by suppliers. This is a direct result of a lack of certain economically ideal factors, which prevents equilibrium.

America’s health care is more expensive than other industrialized countries. A common practice among businesses to lower their costs is competition; it provides a healthy balance between businesses and consumer satisfaction. Although health care should not be a business, America has ignored the idea and importance of competition, creating the extreme prices. America’s universal healthcare

Our lesson and textbook readings this week list quality, efficiency, and cost as three of the drivers of high performance healthcare systems (CCN, 2017; Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, & O’Grady, 2016). Do quality improvements projects equate to higher healthcare costs, or do they decrease costs by reducing adverse outcomes and readmission rates and increase efficiency? Do reductions in cost translate to a reduction in the quality of care? It is with good reason that Hussey, Wertheimer, and Mehrotra (2013) state that the connection between the quality and cost of healthcare is one of the most debated subjects in healthcare today. In their systematic review of 61 studies, the authors found only a small to moderate relationship between quality and

Even with the presence of the positive externalities related to consumption of health care, people are continually pushed out of market due to high prices. Demonstrating a classic example of a market failure, as the market fails to allocate resources effectively. The rising cost of health insurance leads more consumers go without coverage and accompanying rise in the cost of health care expenses has then led health insurers to provide more policies that make the consumer pay more and more. An almost never ending

As Emergency Physicians, we are frequently peripherally exposed to healthcare economic statistics, policies, and debates with little concern for mastering these concepts, feeling that they have little to do with our practice of Emergency Medicine. Although a working knowledge of microeconomics will not aid in arriving at the diagnosis for the elderly patient with mental status changes who we are evaluation at 3 A.M., an understanding of these principles will enhance our roles in positively contributing to the healthcare

Healthcare is getting gradually complex around the world. The need for technological development, economic support, demographics changes and the study of diseases are shifting at a fast speed. There had been numerous labors in describing collective capabilities and values within the healthcare organizations. It is necessary for learning and training programs to be regulated based on the needs of the humanities they support. Therefore, the institutions that are designing and delivering those activities must take responsibility for the products they manufacture for the use of the society. Hence, Academic institutions that are in charge of educating healthcare professionals together with their various stakeholders must interact in collaboration to create actual and proficient strategies that will promote suitable culture in the healthcare systems. Current medical education process has its origins in the European institutions of higher learning that customarily cherished academic freedom, sovereignty and self-regulating exploration over helping humanity and the job market. Based on this, further efforts want an important shift in the viewpoint and procedures of success for educational organizations. Instead of being single contributor, academic world should become the chemical agent for change, and

Evaluate the impact technological changes have had on the economics of health care and what these changes mean to the health care industry, addressing at least two (2) changes.