- Explain how economic decisions are made and what economic concepts are used to evaluate economic trade-offs.
- Evaluate the economic impact of the major components of the healthcare system and assess their relative effect on health services management.
As you learned in Week 1, health care spending is growing faster than overall growth in the economy (as measured by GDP) and by 2026 is expected to consume 20 percent of GDP.
Given what you have learned from the course material in Week 1, discuss these trade-offs and how to evaluate them from an economic perspective.
Specifically, for this assignment use the course readings in Week 1 to answer the following questions:
- Why do we care that health care spending is growing faster than growth in the overall economy as measured by GDP?
- What are the unique characteristics of health care sector that creates inefficiencies in the market.
- In general, what two metrics would you use to evaluate trade-offs of spending more on health care vs. other non-health care goods. Elaborate on each metric.
- From a government (policymakers) perspective, apply these two metrics to excessive health care spending.
This report should be at least five double-spaced pages, include a reference page, and cover page.
