Lernmaterialien für Economics of Healthcare an der Universität Kassel

...is related to the tension between unlimited needs and limited possibilities to fulfil those needs

Economics is thus concerned with the allocation of scarce resources among competing demands.

All resource uses have an opportunity cost (= cost of the best alternative option)

Economists study society and the choices people make. 

• Applied field of economics
• Study the choices/behavior of individuals, health care providers, public and private organizations, and governments in health decision-making
• Study of how (scarce) resources are allocated to and within the healthcare system
  

• demand for health care is a derived demand (for health)
• existence of externalities (these refer to costs or benefits of consumption/production of a good for others than the direct users)
• informational asymmetries between health care providers and patients
• uncertainty with respect to both the need for and effectiveness of health care

1. Presence of externalities (e.g. passive smoking; vaccination) => smoking bans
2. High research and development cost => patent protection
3. Market power (e.g. monopoly) => drug price regulation
4. Nature of goods (e.g. collective goods such as public health program) => national vaccination program
5. Uncertainty => insurance