Question

Question 1

COVID-19 has brought a substantial health crisis worldwide. Many governments are introducing regulatory measures to ease the impact of corona and reduce the risk of the virus on the public health. The corona pandemic is
Is public health a public good? Can you provide sufficient explanations as of why public health should be regarded as a public good? Are private hospitals public health goods? Explain.
Why governments intervene in a market-based health care system? How government intervention in the health care system can be justified from an economic, social and environmental issues.   
Now, what are the essential differences between public goods and private goods? To you as a citizen in Bahrain how much public goods can you consume and why? How much private goods can you consume and why?
In case the government will increase taxes to pay for public health, are you willing to pay more taxes to support government programs to expand public health? Why?
Question 2
To support private sector employees, the government of Bahrain has decided to pay their salaries for three months starting April 1, 2020. Total expenditures by the government is expected to exceed BD550 million to “mitigate the social and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, and to maintain the growth of the private sector and enhance its vital role in supporting the wheel of the national economy”.
What is the real cost of government expenditures? Think about your estimate of the taxes you pay and what you could have purchased with that money.
How do you explain the overall impact of government paying the salaries of private sector employees on the economy?
To pay for private employees, suppose the government will borrow the money from the financial markets. What will be the impact of government borrowing on the economy both in the short and long run?

Answer 1

1)public health is public goodsas they are belongs to the nations and a nation is always for his people.in any country all the peoples doesn't earn the same amount of money through production process but all the peoples has some basic needs like food,shelter,clothes etc for living a healthy life.but if anyone's income is not suffient then government has to step up to provide them those facilities.health is also a necessary for any individual.now look the same thing from another side.all the inviduals in a country participate in the production process and contribute to the national income.now if invidual's health is not good then he can't work,so the total output/production of the country may hamper.so in that sense also govenment have to take care of their people's health.so public health is a public good.but private hospital is not public goods.as to get facilities you have to pay an amount.government hospital provides you basic facilities but if you are not satisfy with that or get better treatment then you can go to private hospital.but private hospital doesn't do it for free so you have to pay to get any treatment.if you can't paid you will not get any facilities so private hospital is not a public goods.

Government can intervene in a price based health care system as all the people can't afford the cost of the private hospitals.but their helath are also import to the nations.but in price based health care system if you don't pay then you can't get treatment so they left out many people.so now where those people goes...here government intervention is necessary to provide all individual a basic minimal treatment.

The difference between public goods and private goods is in private goods you have to pay for it to use it but in public goods you may pay or may not you can still use it.

next is,your consumption of private goods may decrease the of someone eles consumption but in public goods your consumption can't affect other's.

Private goods are supplied through market and it's price also determined through the supply and demand of the market.if you can pay that price then you can own it and after paying for it you can anything to it.but public goods supplied by government and it doesn't has such market so it has no price also.and moreover you can use any public goods but can't own it because it's owner is government.

Now as a citizen of Bahrain I can consume all the public goods government provides to citizen like defense,police service, education,streets,lights,court facilities etc all.as all public goods are provided as a whole and government can't stop any single person for using those facilities tgats why I csn enjoy all the public goods government has provided to the citizen.

But how much private goods I can consume is simply depends upon my income and the price of those goods.as the private goods price determine through market process so I can't influence it.so which i can change is my income.the more income I can earn the more private goods i can consume as consumption is a function of income.

If government want to increase taxesto pay for public health then i may agree to pay this or may not,its depends upon which income group i am belonging.if i'm belonging to low income groups then i can agree to pay higher tax as i usually go to the public hospitals and if their's facility can improve through my taxes then i can also be benefited.but if I belong to high income grouos then i can not agree to pay higher taxes as I go to tge private hospitals and the development of public hospital has no effect to me