StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Willingness-to-Pay in Healthcare - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The essay "Willingness-to-Pay in Healthcare" focuses on the critical analysis of the 'willingness-to-pay' in healthcare. It depends on the theory of supply and demand. In line with this, the concept of supply and demand regarding the rate of employment will be thoroughly discussed…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.5% of users find it useful
Willingness-to-Pay in Healthcare
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Willingness-to-Pay in Healthcare"

Healthcare services include the sale of drugs in treating patients for specific types of diseases. In general, the available supply of drugs about the demand for the said drug significantly affects the market price of a particular drug. For example, chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine which are used to treat malaria costs around US$ 0.15 for a single dose (Wiseman, Onwujekwe, and Matovu). Given that there is an outbreak of malaria within a geographic region, the demand for the said drug is expected to increase. In case there is a scarcity in the supply of the said drug, prices of chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine would likely increase until it reaches a point of equilibrium.

When the economic condition of a country is good, the employment rate is higher. On the contrary, the rate of unemployment rate increases when the economy is bad. Given that more people are employed, there is a higher chance that more people will be able to earn extra money to avail the high cost of health care services offered by the local hospitals and vice versa.

When the employment rate is high, competitive employees can bargain their expected salary from their prospective employers. Even though the market price of health care services is high, more people are willing to pay for a higher cost of competitive health care services. In times of serious financial and economic crisis, most large-scale companies are downsizing the number of their employees. For this reason, talented individuals do not have much choice but to accept work opportunities even though the pay is less than what they deserve. In line with the limited pay, some people are receiving when the economy is bad, people, in general, are unable or unwilling to pay for the high cost of healthcare services (Lang and Lai).

Either by choice, adoption, or divorce, the number of single-parent families is growing fast in the United States (Miller). To enable single mothers to cope with financial expenses, the only way to increase their income is to increase their hours of work.  It means that a single mother usually ends up sacrificing her leisure time with her children in exchange for the income she would earn while working.

For example: Jack is earning $5,000 a month working 8 hours a day as a manager in a five-star hotel whereas Cindy earns only around $500 a week working 8 hours on a part-time job as a waitress because she is taking care of her child as a single mother in the morning. For Cindy to be able to earn $5,000 a month, she will have to work longer hours so she financially supports her child. For Cindy to earn the same earnings as Jack, she will have to work for a total of 80 hours a month. [($500 / 8hours) = $62.50 / hour; $5,000 a month / $62.50 per hour = 80 hours a month] (Jones). Therefore, Jack is more willing than Cindy to spend large sums of money on expensive healthcare services.

The willingness-to-pay of consumers for high prices of health care services highly depends on the economic condition of a country. More people are employed and are earning more money in case of a good economic condition. For this reason, more people are 'willing-to-pay' the high cost of medical services.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Health Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/health-sciences-medicine/1499043-health-economics-essay
(Health Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words - 1)
https://studentshare.org/health-sciences-medicine/1499043-health-economics-essay.
“Health Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words - 1”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/health-sciences-medicine/1499043-health-economics-essay.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Willingness-to-Pay in Healthcare

Systems and diffusion of innovation theories as they apply to healthcare delivery and nursing practice

The government, on its part also took part in covering for the increase in healthcare expenses.... For example, the nurses' role in healthcare is vital because they provide the majority of the initial care to the patients, especially among those in critical condition.... Systems Theory and healthcare Delivery in the U.... The healthcare system, in general, is an open system.... Historically, in United States, from 1965, the expenses for healthcare has steadily increased at least 4....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Professional Responsibility in Healthcare

The paper "Professional Responsibility in healthcare" discusses that the moral obligation of healthcare providers starts with providing services and implementing strategies first within their own country and then extending those to areas of need internationally.... This disparity is primarily due to the lack of access to basic healthcare services among the poor, who reside mostly in developing nations.... Since the United States of America is one of the leading developed countries in terms of healthcare and economy, it has a moral responsibility to play an important role in achieving this goal – which it has done to a certain extent....
3 Pages (750 words) Assignment

Healthcare Reform in America

The essay "Healthcare Reform in America" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues in healthcare reform in America.... This question also needs to be addressed in healthcare reforms.... After World War II, the consideration progression in developing healthcare reform in its infrastructure swerved away from any structure of socialized healthcare.... A key aspect that reinforces the power of physicians is America's vision of progressive healthcare technology, and the requirement to exploit new measures and medications....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Why Healthcare Providers Refuse to Deliver Healthcare Treatments

The author identified main criteria through which healthcare providers may refuse to deliver healthcare treatments or provide healthcare treatments over the objections of patients and/or families; religion, moral obligation, and immaturity of the patients to reach a decision themselves because of their age....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Organ Donation

This paper "Organ Donation" discusses whether the knowledge and attitudes of university health care students differ from non-health care students, especially in matters of organ donation.... It also describes the process of registering as a donor and the 'opt-in' and 'opt-out' systems.... ... ... ...
8 Pages (2000 words) Literature review

Evaluation of Pay Level for Healthcare Workers in the UK

The purpose of the research "Evaluation of Pay Level for healthcare Workers in the UK" is to gauge the extent of the influence of the job criteria and job skills on the quality of the healthcare services and the safety of the patients in the hospital.... herefore, one often comes across moral and ethical dilemmas while dealing with people with cross-cultural values in the healthcare industry.... healthcare organizations are facing multi-pronged problems that need to introduce some radical organizational changes to improve health delivery systems....
14 Pages (3500 words) Research Paper

Nursing - Critically Reflective Account of a Leadership Issue Pertinent to Your Own Work Role

this research paper describes nursing and leadership as an important issue in healthcare organizations.... Rather, the leader of a healthcare organization should understand and identify with employees and tailor his or her approach accordingly.... ecent reforms have required healthcare organizations to implement new ways of operating and to redefine their purposes, the nature of their work and the relationships between employees.... he changing requirements and concerns of patients demand that healthcare is delivered in integrated care patterns spreading across some clinical disciplines....
11 Pages (2750 words) Research Paper

High Costs of Healthcare

The budget of 2010 has set aside $630 billion as a reserve to be used for the healthcare reforms over a period of ten years (OMB).... President Obama has taken the first step towards fulfilling his promise of providing quality and affordable healthcare to one and all without adding burden to the deficit Anderson's (1997) theory organizes the healthcare system as per the contribution of government and private agencies in the healthcare delivery....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us