Is Health Care Demand Elastic? Research Paper Example

Based on the key points discussed in the chapter, it appears that supply and demand drive health care needs in a manner that is similar to the business world. A real life application of this understanding could be used to analyze the prices of health care costs in terms of medications. For example, medications that are often high in demand, such as cancer pharmaceuticals, will continue to be high in price because there are not large quantities of these drugs produced and they are high in demand (DeStefino 30). From my personal experience, this phenomenon has made it challenging for hospital administration teams to acquire necessary amounts of drugs for patients in a cost-effective manner.

Next, it is important to consider that it is challenging to quantify demand, even though incidence of sickness could be used to measure this value, to an extent. Because many factors influence health care costs in the United States, demand is elastic (Shafrin). These factors include external conditions. If the aforementioned elements were implemented into my workplace, it would be more reasonable for us to understand how to adequately cater to a diverse patient base. It is beneficial to conduct analyses that will allow the individual health care institution to gain a better grasp of the supplies needed for its patient population. Understanding supply and demand among smaller portions of the population is helpful because this information represents small manageable units. If health care administrators focus on patient care in this manner, it is likely that they will be able to make treatments and cures widely available for a larger number of patients at a more affordable price.

Works Cited

DeStefino, K. Supply and demand: negotiating the prescription drug labyrinth to reduce costs. Benefits Q. 19.1(2003):30-7.

Shafrin, J. Is health care demand elastic? 22 July 2009. Web. 22 September 2015.