Health Care Economics



Health Care Economics

Introduction

Economics is the study of scarce resources however, the term health care economics signifies the efficient utilization of scarce resources within health care. The limited health care resources may include the number of doctors, the number of nurses, the quantity of operating rooms, and the number of beds in the hospitals. The economics in health care focuses on assessing the scarcity in health care systems and aims at identifying the problem areas and proposing possible solutions to address it. This is the new branch of economics which was introduced by economist Kenneth Arrow in 1963 that is concerned with applying economic tools to resolve health care issues.

Discussion

Economics have the evident applications in the health care as it allocates the scarce resource and health care economics is concerned with getting the most from these insufficient resources. This helps health decision makers to analyze the effective health treatments, medications and technologies to get the most outcome as well as it also highlights the areas to disinvest to improve the health of the population (Shiell et al., 2002).

The health care economics does not only apply at micro levels but it also works at macro level which means that health care economics does not work at the treatment level of patient but it also considers the whole functions of health care system on a macro level. Health care economics identifies the things which are not solely related to actual treatment but it also examines the functions or things that might impact the overall health care setting. These elements also play an equal role in treating the illness such as the distance from the health care setting to the patients' home or the payment treatment also holds the same importance as the treatment itself. For instance, if in case the ...