Sociological Perspective and Health Economics

Healthcare Economics and Perspective of Sociology

Health economics is a term that is relatively difficult to define since it incorporates a wide range of theories, concepts, and topics. However, this term can be described as study of the supply and demand of health care resources and the effect of these resources on a population. One of the concepts in health economics is scarcity, which means limited quantity of health resources with regards to inputs. As a result, scarcity implies that every society must make significant decisions about production, consumption, and distribution of product and services to ensure allocative and production efficiency (Santerre & Neun, 2010, p.4). PPC (Production possibilities curve) is an economic model that shows different mixture of any two goods and services that can be manufactured efficiently in light of stock of technology, resources, and several institutional plans. It is used to determine allocative and production efficiency given that all health care resources are being completely utilized.

Unit 2

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) and Cost-effectiveness Analysis (CEA) are two different economic models that are used for various purposes in health care. In relation to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), CER and CEA differs on their outlook of health production function. CER helps in providing patients and health care providers with necessary information for informed decision making whereas CEA determines the advantages or benefits of health care policy options. Willingness to pay approach in health economics is one of the models used to determine the value of human life. This approach focuses on examining how much people are willing to pay for minimal deductions in the likelihood of dying. The approach evaluates the benefit of life-saving medical service relative to the decreased probability of dying.

Unit 4

There are several factors that cause poverty in the United States given that 50 million Americans lacked adequate food to eat in 2009 including 17 million children. Poverty can be defined as the lack or deprivation of the ordinary or socially acceptable material resources or money. Some of the major causes of poverty in the United States include wage stagnation, changes in family composition, high unemployment rates, and government spending. Since conflict theory is effective in explaining social change, conflict theorists explain poverty in a different way. These theorists explain poverty based on the argument that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful to the society. Therefore, poverty is regarded as stratification in the society, which benefits the rich and powerful people while harming others. Race, gender, and ethnicity are related to poverty on the premise that they are by-products of societal stratification. These three elements are related to poverty since they create discrimination, which affects equitable distribution of resources in the society (Kendall, 2013, p.320).