Question

Name and describe at least two economic concepts that will translate to your profession in healthcare.

What can you do to continue to reinforce and grow these ideas about economics and/or about ways to improve team collaboration in healthcare?

Answer 1

Health economics is a branch of economics, that includes economic models for health care decisions. The two economic concepts that I have taken for this question is the simple demand and supply theory and the production of resources and opportunity cost.

Demand and Supply In Health care

The demand for health care is a derived demand from the demand for health. Health care is demanded by consumers to achieve health capital. Health care can be considered both as a consumption good which gives the consumer utility and satisfaction and also as an investment good. Investment in health care can be considered as an investment in Human capital. The optimal level of investment in health is when the marginal cost of health capital is equal to the marginal benefits attained. The supply of health care is the service offered. The amount of service offered depends on a particular price that affects the demand and consumption decisions of the individuals.

Production

When considering health as a good and service that is produced has to take into consideration the economic concepts. The production of goods and services requires resources like raw materials, capital, labor, etc. The inputs in the production of the health care process are labor, equipment, building, etc. The output is produced using the inputs and other mediating factors like environment, and whether it is publicly owned or privately owned. The producer's aim is to maximise his profit, like the hospitals that charge prices.