Question

Health Insurance and Economy

When dealing with public health policy and laws, we need to consider various aspects of the economy. Concepts of efficiency can be utilized when deciding which goods and services should be produced and who should receive them.

The three types of efficiencies are allocative, production, and technical. The two types of health economics are positive and normative. Positive Economics deals with "what is" or the current status that is linked to a clear standard of measurement. Normative economics deals with "what ought to be" and is subject to interpretation with the moral or ethical aspects of a policy. Your lecture has more details.

Using South University Online Library or the Internet, search the article, “The Interplay of Public Health Law and Industry Self-Regulation: The Case of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Sales in Schools."

On the basis of the article and your understanding on the topic, write a 3- to 4-page essay in a Microsoft Word document on the three types of economic efficiencies and both positive and normative economics as it relates to regulating sugar-sweetened beverage sales in schools.

Support your statements with at least two other scholarly sources, correctly formatted in APA style. This assignment requires a title page, an introduction, a body, a conclusion, and a separate reference page.

Submission Details:

Support your responses with reasoning and examples.

Cite any sources in APA format.

Name your document SU_PHE3050_W2_A2_LastName_FirstInitial.doc.

Submit your document to the Submissions Area by the due date assigned.

Reference:

Mello, M. M., Pomeranz, J., & Moran, P. (2008). The interplay of public health law and industry self-regulation: The case of sugar-sweetened beverage sales in schools. American Journal of Public Health, 98(4). 595–604.

Answer 1

Concept of Health Economics:

Health economics can be defined as the implementations of the theories and concepts of economics in healthcare sector. This is mostly concern about the allocation of resources between different health promoting activities, the net amount of total resources used in healthcare sector, details of the several organization and funding of healthcare services, the efficiency with which resources are allocated and used for health purposes and out puts of the effects of preventive and curative health services on the particular and society. Health economics can be defined as the application of the principles of economics to healthcare sector. Health economics covers the study of how scarce resources are allocated among alternative uses for the treatment of people.

Scopes:

There are several scopes in field of health economy such as relationship between health status and productivity, financial aspects of health care services, economic decision making in health and medical care institutions, planning of health development and also others important aspects.

In the health economics sector the problems in healthcare sector have been addressed both in positive and normative ways.

Normative way:

In normative way, covers about what should be, example: what should be the suitable budget for TB/HIV control.

Positive way:

Positive branch of health economics applies all new economic theories in health care. Demand for health care, factors that affect the demand for healthcare such as income of individuals, their tastes and preferences, elasticity of demand for health problems, urgency of treating a disease, preference for public and private healthcare, supply of healthcare are the subject matters of positive health economics.

Consumer’s healthcare budget:

Still several insurance policies various households are still remain vulnerable to depleting their savings in the event when they experience a major illness. This vulnerability shows that peoples commonly choose health plans for themselves that lead them to pay more for prescription drug coverage or health insurance than they otherwise need to.

Good Health is a fundamental Right:

World Health Organisation (WHO), states that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition”

Good health is very well linked with the human rights. In the case of violation of human rights this can be a serious health problem. Therefore, we should take all initiatives to decreases the exposure to diseases health by taking steps to protect the right to freedom from discrimination. Everybody should be aware of right to health, right to education and right to housing. Therefore this is the urgency to include the human rights based approach in the health care policy for the good health.