Amount of Medical Care
Spending
Only someone living in entire
seclusion, perhaps a World War II Japanese soldier hiding somewhere on a
Pacific island or someone raised in a nuclear fallout shelter of the 1950s,
would be unaware of the situation involving medical care costs in the United
States.6Indeed, it seems that not a day goes by without a radio, television, or
popular press commentator pointing, with much alarm, to the high and
continually rising costs of health care. There is certainly no need to dispute
those facts. United States spent $2.1 trillion on health care or slightly over
$7,000 per person in 2006. Compare that to the similar figures of $26.9 billion
and $141 dollars in 1960.
There are potentially alarming
because trade-offs may be involved. That is, the PPC tells us that high health
care costs translate into lower amounts of other goods produced and consumed.
Certainly, high health care costs could reflect more and better medical care,
but high spending may also involve the sacrifice of other equally important
goods and services like food, clothing, and shelter. However, the productive
capacity of the U.S. health economy has changed over time—the situation may not
be as bleak as the statistics show. For example, the economy may now possess
more labor and capital resources and productivity-improving technologies. Thus,
the PPC has likely shifted out and therefore more of one good or service can be
produced without sacrificing the others.
One way of controlling for
differences in the underlying productive capacity of an economy or economies is
by dividing, in this case, the amount of health care spending by GDP. Greater
productive capacity, resulting from higher amounts of resources and better
technology, generally means a larger level of GDP and therefore more goods and
services in general.
Policy makers continue to
debate the cause and desirability of rising health care costs in the United
States and in other countries. Some argue that the U.S. health care system
contains a lot of production inefficiency that can and should be squeezed out.
Others point out that the benefits from health care more than compensate for
the costs.
0 ความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น