Research Paper on "Application of Economic Concepts to Health Care"

Research Paper 4 pages (1485 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Medicare provides a baseline of financial stability that allows for the entire health care system to be stabilized.

3. "Health reform" is a wishy-washy term, defined differently by each and every stakeholder, so it cannot be evaluated. But a national health insurance system can be evaluated, as there are many examples of this around the world. It is unclear what "history" we are supposed to use for our inferences, however. Efforts to enact a national health insurance program are usually reflective of the desire for social equity, where everybody is able to receive the health care that they need. It is a system whereby younger workers pay taxes or fees into the system, financing health care for the elderly and chronically sick, but also providing all people with emergency medical care. Most countries that have enacted this have done so primarily for social reasons. Essentially, the argument is that health care is a basic right in a civilized society, and should not be subject to profiteering. Economically, however, it is also worth noting that nationalized health care systems are no more or less efficient than the U.S. system, but without the exorbitant profits those systems have a lower total cost of care -- the U.S. is a pretty dramatic outlier on health care costs per capita. Free market advocates operate with the assumption that corporations are inherently more efficient than government, but the numbers do not support this at all (Woolhander, Campbell & Himmelstein, 2003). So the biggest economic rationale for nationalized health care is that it removes profits from the system, lowering overall costs. It's not like people are going to quit their jobs as doctors to go deliver pizzas just because they make a few less dollars.

But the efforts that we have seen are interesting, because the different stakeholders, except patients of course, each fight for their own interests. The ACA relies on private health insurance because private insurance companies were part of the formulation of that law. The same is with respect to drug companies. Where there are losers in the ACA or other regulation, that likely reflects the relative balance of power for that group in the political arena -- it is hard to adapt or reform an existing system without favoring some established interests over others; countries that have sought a nationalized health system implemented it a long time ago, and did so wholesale, in order to avoid the sort of political horse-trading as seen in the ACA.

4. Several themes have emerged in the call for national health insurance. The first is that there is not universal access to health care, which has both social and economic implications. On either count, national health insurance has some logic. The profit motive has been a part of this debate as well, with one side arguing that profits are a needless cost that simply makes health care more expensive, and others arguing that profits create the incentive for investment that allows the U.S. To have a good, modern health care system (for those who can afford it). The need to balance different interests seems to be a theme, which is why national health insurance does not exist -- some of the entrenched interests have fought very hard to avoid this. But the call for national health insurance has often come down to analysis against countries that have such a system, and manage to deliver better health outcomes at a lower cost (Lasser, Himmelstein & Woolhander, 2008). Something is inefficient and broken in the U.S. system, and there are those who feel that national health care is the best fix; others disagree, hence the debate.

References

Katz, S. & Hofer, T. (1994). Socioeconomic disparities in preventative care persist despite universal coverage. Journal of the American Medical Association.Vol. 272 (7) 530-534.

Lasser, K., Himmelstein, D. & Woolhander, S. (2006). Access to care, health status and health disparities in the United States and Canada: Results of a cross-national population-based survey. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 96 (7) 1300-1307.

Peltzman, S. (1989). The economic theory of regulation after a decade of deregulation. Brookings Papers. Retrieved June 3, 2015 from http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Projects/BPEA/1989%20micro/1989_bpeamicro_peltzman.PDF

Woolhander, S., Campbell, T. & Himmelstein, D. (2003). Costs of health care administration in the United States and Canada. New England Journal of Medicine. Vol. 349… READ MORE

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