HEALTH CARE ECONOMICS

Economics of Health Care and the Impact on Current Nursing Salaries

Economics of Health Care and the Impact on Current Nursing Salaries

Draft Outline

The paper includes information pertaining to the economics of health care and the impact on current nursing salaries. The paper includes the following sections:

Background

History of Health Care Economics

The Demand for Health

Health Insurance

Impact on current Nursing salaries

Conclusion

The paper aims to provide background information about economics of health care along with a brief history about its emergence. In addition, it also aims to provide information about the economics of health care and its impact on the wage structure of nurses.

Background

Economics of health care is widely understood to encompass the study of the demand and supply for medical services (physician services, services provided in hospitals and independent laboratories, pharmaceuticals, etc.) and for health insurance, as well as comparative studies of different health care systems. It also includes the study of the determinants of demand for health itself, global public health problems, and the nonmedical inputs into health, such as a decent living standard, education, physical and social environment, and personal lifestyle choices, to the extent that they are exogenous (e.g., independent of one's health status). Although the nonmedical factors are increasingly realized to be important in achieving a healthy community at an affordable level of expenditure, most courses in health economics are primarily concerned with the provision of medical care and with health insurance that primarily covers medical care (Schulten, 2009). Expenditure on medical care, insurance, and research represents a high proportion of gross domestic product (GDP), especially in the United States, and a proportion that is increasing in all high-income industrialized nations. We also focus on medical care as an input into health because it provides no benefits other than its contribution to health, unlike diet, recreation, and exercise.

History of Health Care Economics

Since the last 4 decades, the area of health care has become one of the key economic and political concerns. In addition, countries around the globe have been witnessing an increase in health care expenditure. Along with the increased spending, the health sector presented an increased level of growth, rationalization and management. The end of World War II brought a need to establish academic and financial resources to deal with the issues of emerging questions pertaining to economic analysis. The resulting branch is now known as “Economics of Health Care”. Other significant development in the economics of health care is health insurance. Health insurance is a result of uncertainty about one's future state of health, uncertainty about what kind of treatment to pursue, and uncertainty about the cost of treatment all contribute to the importance of insurance, or “third-party payment” in the market for health care services. The increasing cost and infrastructure need has resulted in high cost of services and treatment. This factor is also responsible for the wage structure of health care workers such as nurses.

The Demand for Health

It is important to clearly distinguish between health and health ...