Healthcare BASIC Flashcards
Week 5 (12 cards)
1
Q
How does healthcare look in the UK (Size and Features)? Why is this market unique?
A
- Largest employer in the UK (3rd Globally)
- Spends 12.4% of GDP on healthcare (17.4% in US)
- Free to the point of use
- Funded through taxation
- Private healthcare does exist, however it is costly
- GPs co-ordinate patient care and refer patients to specialists
- Imperfect Information: Consumption is not usually planned
- Incomplete information: moral hazard and adverse selection
- Externalities: Contagious diseases and vaccinations
2
Q
How can the uniqueness/ issues of the healthcare market be mitigated?
A
- IMPERFECT INFO: Insurance can help, but adverse selection can be present
- INCOMPLETE INFO: Universal/state funded healthcare, but this can cause excess demand and long wait times
- EXTERNALITIES: Universal/state funded healthcare increases access, but this can cause excess demand and long wait times
3
Q
What are different healthcare systems in the world?
A
- Publically funded: UK, Sweden, Canada
- Privately funded: US, Switzerland, Canada
- Partially funded: France, Germany, China , Japan
4
Q
How can Healthcare be measured?
A
- Life Expectancy: Judges how long a new born infant is expected to live- current mortality rate is fixed
- Infant Mortality Rate: Measurs the deaths per 1000 births of children under the age of 1
- Healthcare spending : GDP: Measures the input ratio and examines how well it is used
- QALYs are a cardinal measure (death=0, health=1)
- QALY =Quality * Quantity
5
Q
How can the Demand for healthcare be modelled (NEOCLASSICAL)?
A
- Demand for healthcare is a need, not a want
- In the neoclassical model, utility is still maximised subject to constraints
- U(x1,x2,x3…xn) Subject to ΣXiPi < Income
- Constraint: PxX + PhH = I, where H is healthcare and X is other goods
- Substitute and optimise to find H
- Neoclassical only describes general patterns, not overall specifics
- Scoggings and Weinberg (2017) found PED of -0.2
- Size of IED depends on the type of healthcare
6
Q
How can the Demand for healthcare be modelled (GROSSMAN)?
A
- Attempts to bridge the gap of neoclassical (health vs healthcare)
- Utility not based on market goods, but rather fundamental commodities
- These basic commodities are created by market goods (i.e. a gym membership doesn’t increase health)
- Health is only produced by healthcare, which is allocated via a budget constraint
- Education and income have positive benefits on health/health investment
7
Q
What are some criticims of The Grossman Model?
A
- Perfect foresight is needed
- Adverse selection: Only poor risk customers buy insurance
- Moral Hazard: Insurance may encourage riskier actions
8
Q
What is the Supply of healthcare like in the US?
A
- Public programmes: Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP (non-formal)
- Private Insurance: Employer sponsor, individual plans
- Out-of-pocket payments
- ‘Obamacare’ act in 2010 aimed to expand coverage to more people, becoming less likely
9
Q
What is the Supply of healthcare like in the UK?
A
- GP: Initial person, distribution outwards
- Hospitals: Provide specialist and emergency care
- Pharmacy: Privately owned that comes from dispenseries
- Dentistry: ~50% of income comes from NHS
- Drug Precurement: Cheaper drugs due to collective bargaining
- Funded via general taxation- NHS allocated budgets to 191 boards
- No absolute right for treatment
10
Q
How does the NHS perform?
A
- BEST overall system (Schneider, 2017)
- Attempt to reduce hotel function; reducing the amount of beds per 1000 people
- UK have 2.8 GPs per 1000 people
- Challanges: Limited constraints, waiting time, taxation
11
Q
Why is there a need for policing the healthcare market?
A
- Market failures
- Equity concerns: Should those who contribute more have more healthcare- what about someone dying?
- NHS attempt to reduce wait time, but this will harm quality of care
12
Q
What policies can be used by the UK Government to improve the NHS?
A
- Regulation- price controls
- Public healthcare- NHS
- Subsidised insurance/Medicaid
- Sin Taxes- Alcohol, Tobacco
