"Health economics is a branch of economics concerned with issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behavior in the production and consumption of health and healthcare."
Understanding of sources of healthcare financing, types of health insurance, government-funded healthcare programs, and the role of private insurance companies in healthcare policy.
Health Insurance: An overview of the types of health insurance, their benefits, and the ways in which they work.
Medicare: The federal health insurance program for people over 65 and those with certain disabilities, including its eligibility, coverage, and financing.
Medicaid: The joint federal-state program that provides health coverage to low-income individuals and families, its eligibility, coverage, and financing.
Private Insurance: An overview of the private insurance marketplace, the various types of plans and their benefits, and the ways in which they work.
Health Reform: The Affordable Care Act (ACA), its main provisions, its impact on health insurance coverage and financing, and its ongoing implementation.
Health Care Delivery: An overview of the different types of health care providers, such as hospitals, doctors, and clinics, and the way in which they are financed.
Health Economics: An introduction to the principles of health economics, including the concepts of supply and demand, cost-benefit analysis, and health system efficiency.
Health Care Financing: The different ways in which health care is financed, including private insurance, government programs, and out-of-pocket payments.
Health Care Access: An overview of the barriers to health care access, such as lack of insurance, high costs, and geographic or cultural factors, and the ways in which they can be addressed.
Health Disparities: The unequal distribution of health care resources and outcomes based on race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status, and the ways in which they can be addressed.
Health Care Quality: An introduction to the concept of health care quality and the various measures used to assess it, including patient outcomes, patient experience, and clinical performance.
Health Care Costs: An overview of the factors that drive health care costs, including medical technology, population aging, and chronic disease, and the ways in which they can be managed.
Health Care Reform: The ongoing debate over the future of health care in the United States, including potential changes to health care financing, access, and quality.
Private health insurance: Individuals or groups purchase policies from private insurance companies to cover healthcare expenses. These policies may be paid for in full or shared with employers, and premiums may be adjusted based on the amount of coverage provided.
Public health insurance: Government-funded programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) provide coverage for people who meet certain eligibility requirements.
Consumer-driven health plans: These plans require individuals to take responsibility for their own healthcare costs by providing them with high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts.
Government funding: Governments may provide funding directly to healthcare providers to help cover the cost of healthcare services.
Philanthropy: Private donors and charities may provide funding to healthcare organizations to support research or provide healthcare services to individuals who cannot afford them.
Out-of-pocket payments: In some countries, individuals are required to pay directly for healthcare services or purchase health insurance plans on their own, without any government or employer involvement.
Social health insurance: A type of insurance in which contributions are based on income or other factors, and the government is responsible for administering the program and paying for healthcare services.
Managed care plans: These plans involve an insurance company working with healthcare providers to negotiate lower prices and promote more efficient use of healthcare services.
Provider subsidies: Healthcare providers may receive government subsidies to help offset the cost of providing healthcare services to uninsured or underinsured individuals.
Healthcare bonds: Healthcare providers and organizations may issue bonds to raise funds for capital projects or other healthcare-related initiatives.
"Health economics is important in determining how to improve health outcomes and lifestyle patterns through interactions between individuals, healthcare providers and clinical settings."
"Health economists study health-affecting behaviors such as smoking, diabetes, and obesity."
"One of the biggest difficulties regarding healthcare economics is that it does not follow normal rules for economics. Price and Quality are often hidden by the third-party payer system of insurance companies and employers."
"QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Years), one of the most commonly used measurements for treatments, is very difficult to measure and relies upon assumptions that are often unreasonable."
"A seminal 1963 article by Kenneth Arrow is often credited with giving rise to health economics as a discipline."
"Factors that distinguish health economics from other areas include extensive government intervention, intractable uncertainty in several dimensions, asymmetric information, barriers to entry, externality, and the presence of a third-party agent."
"In healthcare, the third-party agent is the patient's health insurer, who is financially responsible for the healthcare goods and services consumed by the insured patient."
"Health economists evaluate multiple types of financial information: costs, charges, and expenditures."
"Uncertainty is intrinsic to health, both in patient outcomes and financial concerns."
"The knowledge gap that exists between a physician and a patient creates a situation of distinct advantage for the physician, which is called asymmetric information."
"Externalities arise frequently when considering health and health care, notably in the context of the health impacts as with infectious disease or opioid abuse."
"For example, making an effort to avoid catching the common cold affects people other than the decision-maker."
"Finding sustainable, humane, and effective solutions to the opioid epidemic."
"Health economists study the functioning of healthcare systems and health-affecting behaviors to determine how to improve health outcomes and lifestyle patterns."
"Health economists study health-affecting behaviors such as smoking, diabetes, and obesity."
"QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Years), one of the most commonly used measurements for treatments."
"QALY measurement is very difficult to measure and relies upon assumptions that are often unreasonable."
"Factors that distinguish health economics from other areas include extensive government intervention, intractable uncertainty, asymmetric information, and barriers to entry."
"The patient's health insurer, who is financially responsible for the healthcare goods and services consumed by the insured patient."