Question

Explain how changes in incomes, population, and lifestyles contribute to increasing health care costs.

Answer 1

According to the journal of american medical association , the health care spending in the USA rose trillion dollars from 1995 to 2015, further more it has been declared by the association that the 5 key factors that continues to affect the increasing cost of health care are

1. population growth

2. population aging

3. disease Prevalence or incidence which stems from lifestyles

4. the increasing costs of risk premiums associated with health insurance

population growth and aging population directly impact the increasing health care cost substantially , the policy makers however cannot do much about it as demographic changes will directly impact the cost of health care , with more and growing number of people seeking health care the cos is ought to go up.

We live in a world where the rich continues to get richer and the poor getting poorer , the growing inequality in income and the gap between the rich and poor impacts the affordability of the health insurance premiums . sheer lack of transparency and underline inefficiency gives rise to information asymmetry ; there have been cases reported that hospitals in America charging $ 50k for a knee replacement surgery where as cost associated with it is ought to be around $11k ,

Lifestyle in the modern era contributes a lot rise in health care cost as well. Diseases outbreak , rise in the number of chronic health problem which gets magnified by unhealthy stressful lifestyles, pollution and unhealthy eating habits among the majority is at an all time high . In the USA after diabetes chronic illnesses that account for increase in the health care costs are back pain, arthritis , depression , high cholesterol, blood pressure , urinary diseases , oral diseases and blood stream infections.