The Technological Impact on Economics of Healthcare

The Technological Impact on Economics of Healthcare

Introduction

Health economics or Healthcare economics can simply be defined as a branch of the discipline of economics. It encompasses the issues, problems and controversies that are related to value, effectiveness, behavior and efficiency in production, consumption and utilization of the products and services associated to health and the health care. However, with the passage of time the definition of the term has been modified. Currently, health economics has broadened its range to include the functioning and operations of the health care systems in addition to the health-affecting behaviors. It is important to note that the field has experienced several changes as a result of change of various external factors. These may include the overall increase in inflation, poverty, ineffective insurance policies and much more. The most dominant aspect however remains the impact on economics as a result of changes in technology.

Discussion

The age of technology has blossomed in the past 30 years or so, consequently with the progress that have taken place in the field of medical sciences, specifically with the contraption of “high-tech” electronic equipments. In fact, the discipline of biomedical engineering played its part in stimulating the progress of research and development analyzing and including the advances in technology. In fact, the Americans as a whole regard technology as both beneficial and useful (Cheng & Ives, 2009).

Technological Changes on Health Care Economics

According to the health care workers belonging to different sub domains, technology has played an ever-expanding part, including the innovations, development and progress in procedures, processes, drugs and devices which ultimately enables the officials to deliver and maintain a health care system and services that are more convenient, sophisticated and effective. Hence, it will be fair to say that the technology has improved the standard and functioning of various sub domains of medical field. However, the most important remain the medicine and devices (Okunade & Murthy, 2002).

According to several health care researches and studies, the influence of the medical technology on the increasing cost of the health care has usually remained ignored and neglected. 81 % of the leading and well-known health economists and experts have given their consent to the claim that the fundamental cause for the boost in the health division's share over past 30 years of the GDP is the technological change in the medicine or drugs. However, on the other hand, it has been the innovation of various new devices and equipment that has changed the overall dynamics of the health care expenses and its affordability for individuals (Folland, Goodman & Stano, 2013).

Many health care economists describes technology change and the resulting impact on health care systems and practices into three levels, on the basis of what each level is capable to achieve. Firstly is the “Non-technology” that helps prevent any disease and can be reasonably priced. For instance, include the relatively recent blood pressure cuff that enables and facilitates a relatively economical determination of the physiologic status of the ...