Assignment: Health Production Questions
Access the Getting Started Folder Week One for the reading assignments for this Module. After you have completed the readings, complete and submit this assignnment.
You must submit written responses to these questions.
1. Assume that health production is subject to diminishing returns and that each unit of healthcare employed entails a constant rate of iatrogenic (medically caused) disease. Would the product of health function eventually bend downward? Explain.
2. What role did public health play in the historical decline in mortality rates?
3. Suppose you were hired as an adviser to a developing country and you were versed in the theory of production, the historical role of medicine, and the modern-day health production functions studies. Their government seeks advice on the wisdom of a relative emphasis on health and health investment versus other forms of economic investment. What would be your advice?
4. Contrast technical and allocative efficiency. How can technical and allocative inefficiency in healthcare firms affect patient welfare?
5. Which of the following types of technological change in healthcare are likely to be cost increasing: (A) threats of malpractice suits cause physicians to order more diagnostic tests on average for a given set of patient symptoms; (B) a new computer-assisted scanning device that enables physician to take much more detailed pictures on the brain: (C) the introduction of penicillin earlier in this century; (D) greater emphasis on preventive care? Discuss.
• Income, Risk and Consumer Demand for Healthcare
Access the Getting Started Folder Week One for the reading assignments for this Module. After you have completed the readings, complete and submit this assignnment.
You must submit written responses to these questions.
o Why is the depreciation of capital good a cost of society? In what ways does a person's health depreciate?
o Why might older people's healthcare expenditures increase in the Grossman model even though their desired health stocks may be lower?
o List at least three factors that might increase an individual's marginal efficiency of investment in health capital.
o The deductible feature of an insurance policy can affect the impact of moral hazard. Explain this in the context either of probability of treatment and/or amount of treatment demanded.
o Describe the benefits to society from purchasing insurance. Describe the costs. Define and discuss the welfare gains from changes in insurance coverage.
o If only risk-averse people will buy health insurance, why do many people who buy health insurance also buy lottery tickets (an activity more consistent with risk taking)? Speculate on the differences and similarities.
• Healthcare Reform
Chapter 23 in the 7th Ed. of The Economics of Health and Health Care is devoted to Health System Reform.
The local Chamber of Commerce where you live has learned that you are taking this course. They have asked you to come and be a guest lecturer about health system reform; specifically they are very curious about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010.
For this assignment, create a 9 - 12 slide PowerPoint solely related to healthcare reform. Be sure to focus on the PPACA. Use the notes section of the PowerPoint as needed.
Be sure to have one slide dedicated to references.
• Nursing Home Industry
In a 500 - 750 word assignment, discuss the nursing home industry. In your paper you are to: (a) discuss the growth of the nursing home industry, (b) determine if the current supply of long-term care facilities will be sufficient to meet the rapidly expanding elderly population, and (c) discuss the overall quality of care in these facilities. Please submit as an APA formatted paper.