Health economics Flashcards
why is health econ different from normal
Different good characteristics
Characteristics of the demand
Characteristics of the supply
Quality, quantities
Public vs private provision
what are the special qualities of health although it’s an econ good?
- is less tangible than other goods
- cannot be transferred to others
- not tradeable
- improvements cannot be purchased directly
what is the difference between postiive and normative statement
positive statement
is an assertion about how the world is.
A normative statement
is an assertion about how the world ought to be.
explain the difference between the two types of efficiency
Technical: maximize output and minimize cost
Allocative: choice of how much to produce of which good to maximise welfare for given resources
Does health needs to be exchanged to create utility?
No, Health itself gives intrinsic value
Health is a demand for healthcare .
Explain the cost effectiveness plane
Left bottom: cost savings have to be large enough (more than 30000) to justify reduced effectiveness.
give me formulas for MNB and HNB
Monetary net benefits → MNB = (Rc * @E) - @C (i.e you monetise the net benefit)
Health net benefits → HNB = @E - (@C / Rc) (i.e you convert costs into the same units as effects e.g life years gained)
The treatment is cost-effective if the MNB or HNB > 0
@ = change in
In different economic analysis, what are the different outcomes?
Monetary benefit → e.g money saved from reduced number of doctors needed / productivity gains
Effectiveness measures → e.g early diagnosis, life years gained etc.
Various utility measures → such as QALYs and DALYs
what are the 3 main methods to calulate QOL (not SF-36, etc)
**Standard gamble (SG) **→ the standard gamble is similar to time trade-off but with probabilities - where you set up a scenario where participants make a comparison between living with no treatment or going for an option where there is a “p” chance of living in full health but a “1 - p” chance of death:
**Time trade off (TTO) **→ stated preferences to death and alternatives, it would make subjects find the indifference point as a ratio of the LOL healthy vs the LOL in suboptimal health (the trade off) for example in the case of a broken leg you would as how many years of life make you indifferent between living with a broken leg and living healthily e.g
Visual analogue scale (rate scaling) → you ask people to rate on a visual analogue scale that if they had a particular health condition where they would rate their quality of life (or you can also derive it from people who have experienced the disease / condition) rating from 0 (no QOL) to 1 (full health)
Professional judgement
Explain DALYs
Life LOST
Rated by professionals
DALYS (disability adjusted life years) are a measure from the WHO and World Bank data as a measure of population ill-health
It represents the time people live with a disability including the time they lose due to premature mortality
**It is rates on 0 (perfect health) to 1 (maximum disability)
**
They will ask experts on the condition to answer the quality of life which would occur from a certain disability (IN THE local population)
Apart from the NHS what other perspective can an economic analyses be taken from?
The public sector
The health care system
A given institution (such as a hospital)
The patient and family
Give me niche concept about indiffernce curves and how to calculate marginal rate of subsitution
Curves never cross
if MRS is 2 then it means decreasing x axis by 1 would need there to be an increase of y axis of 2 to give the same utility
Explain the utility maximizing rule for the indifference curves
MUx/Px == MUy/Py (i.e where budget line meets curve)
if MUx/Px is larger then you need to get more x until MUx decreases!
what is the difference between demand schedule and demand curve
Demand Schedule:
Relationship between price and quantity demanded (table)
Demand Curve:
Relationship between the price of a good and the quantity demanded (graph)
what are the functions for the demand of healthcare
- Price of health care
- Prices of substitutes and complements
- Lifestyle (smoking, exercise, diet)
- Income
- Type of insurance
- Level of education
- Age
- Sex
- Health status
- Quality of care
what other factors causes the shift of the whole demand curve
Income: normal v inferior goods
Prices of related goods
Number of buyers increase will shift to the right
Expectations
Explain how environmental factors affect health demand
Environmental factors also affect demand, e.g how much you demand will depend on the type of insurance:
Co-insurance → for example those fully insured purchase roughly 40% more healthcare than those not fully insured
Deductibles
Explain Production frontier
You have a SET AMOUNT OF INPUT and you’re varying the amount of outputS (combination) you can get.
You should be on the line, belwo is ineffcient. Above= no budget ot increase input
However curve can move up due to tech that maximises outputS with same input
Optimal point is just when is bends