Economic of Health Care



Economics of Health Care

Introduction

The articles compared in this paper are, Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care, written by Kenneth J. Arrow and The Lawyerization of Medicine, written by William, M. Sage. Although these two articles are quite old; however, their content is worth reading.

The first article is an exploratory study which aims to examine the differentia of medical care as the body of normative economics. The study identifies (after comparing the characteristics of the medical industry with the rules of economic welfare), that issues arising in medical care can be elaborated as uncertainties existing in the efficiency of treatment and incidence of disease.

On the other hand, the second article talks about the misconducts of medical practitioners. In addition to this, article also criticized the study of Arrow, saying that Arrow's study exposed only a small proportion of physicians to the lawyers. The author focused on M.D.-J.D.s as they are perceived as beneficial influencer of lawyering on doctoring. The author also criticized this degree by stating that it is a prescient. To prove his statement, he quoted the example of a Harvard student who misunderstood law school as medical school, eventually completing both the degrees and emerging as someone who has the ability to ruin human lives in two completely unique ways.

Discussion

In my opinion, the article written by Sage has some elements of emotions in it, as all that has been written by the author is not true. He has criticized J.D.s as people who can never turn out to be good lawyers because of the beliefs that they have. As quoted by the author, I confess that the combination of the lawyers wistfully expressed beliefs that I would make a great physician and the physicians' remarks that I would make a great lawyer took its toll on my self-confidence.

Also, it is also not true that whatever Arrow has pointed at is correct. In my opinion, there is no connection among the norms of welfare economic and the efficacy of operations of medical care industry. There is no point of using a concept as a competitive equilibrium in analyzing the health care industry. Although, the cost and benefits associated with the health care services is of immense significance; however, I see no link in between the concepts that Arrow has used to relate them with medical care industry.

Sage has used the concept of Bio-Ethics to show the relationship between legal and medical issues. This makes sense, as any illegal practice going on in the medical care industry can be challenged through law, under the umbrella of Bio-Ethics. Moreover, medical ethics have been streamlined under the influence of law, as now patient autonomy is the center of focus instead of physician beneficence. This substitution is not attractive for physicians, but, it holds an intuitive appeal for lawyers. This will also empower patients and will ascertain their preferences. Sage also identified that, with the collapse of medical ethics into law, the belief found in Arrow's study become less ...