Implications of Health Economics Concepts for Health Assignment

Assignment Task

Objectives

This discussion will highlight how health economic concepts relate and are relevant to actual policy making in health. attached above is the excerpts from budget document related to healthcare.

Australian budget

However if expert wishes to discuss budget measure from any other country, they can do so

This is an example from another student's discussion to get a big of an idea:

I thought I would explore the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics -additional funding from page 138 of the document uploaded to the discussion post. I work in the pre-hospital setting, and the establishment of the Primary Patient Care Centres (PPCC) in Victoria have been a real game changer with the ability to refer lower acuity patients to the PPCCs, which are essentially the same as the Medicare UCCs.

The budget document outlines an additional $358.5 million over five years from 2022-23 to establish the UCCs to reduce pressure on hospital emergency departments. These clinics are open during extended business hours and ensure patients do not have out-of-pocket costs.

Reflecting on the economic concepts learned from week 1, I believe some of the main ideas covered include equity and effectiveness due to Government intervention in the healthcare sector. As well as looking at the opportunity cost of establishing the UCCs and how this funding fits within the production possibility frontier.

Establishment of UCCs allow patients to receive the treatment they need based on the decision by a third party provider or healthcare professional. This ensures healthcare effectiveness, contributing to economic efficiency. Patients will not be sent for unnecessary scans or tie up emergency departments for minor ailments. Therefore, the allocation of limited healthcare resources lends itself to maximising the health status of the whole population, not just those who can afford it.

Patients attending UCCs are also given access to healthcare based on fairness – as there are no out of pocket costs, this ensures equity of healthcare services. In perfect market systems, resources are allocated on a person’s willingness to pay, given their income and preferences. Government intervention in healthcare ensures that lower socioeconomic households are still afforded appropriate healthcare, especially important as these cohorts of people often have poorer health and wellbeing, with poorer life expectancy.

In terms of opportunity cost, the establishment of the UCCs allows for an appropriate allocation of health resources to lessen the burden of hospital emergency departments while not taking from other government priorities like education, as one example.

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