MHA 710 EXAM 1 LSUS FULL REVISION NOTES
WITH SCARCITY, INSURANCE, AND MARKET
FAILURE CONCEPTS
◉ What is opportunity cost?
Answer: Potential loss from a missed opportunity. Passing up the
next best choice.
◉ What does "marginal" refer to?
Answer: The examination of the costs and benefits through a small
change in the production of goods
◉ What does efficiency refer to?
Answer: No way to rearrange production of goods in a way that
makes one person more better off without making somebody else
worse off. How well an economy uses scare resources to meet the
needs/wants of their customers
◉ How do positive economic statements differ from normative
economic statements?
Answer: Positive economics is objective while normative economics
is subjective. Facts/ What is vs What should be
,◉ How can economics be applied to the health sector?
Answer: Describe, Explain, Evaluate, Plan
◉ As we progress through the chapters, think about the special
characteristics that apply to the health sector that might limit the
applicability of traditional economic models.
Answer: Social determinants of health, few insurance companies
that providers rely on, not a perfectly competitive market
◉ How are healthcare products both outputs and inputs? Can you
give an example?
Answer: Products (goods and services are considered products) are
commonly both inputs and outputs. For example, a surgical tool is an
input into a surgery and an output of a surgical tool company.
Similarly, the surgery itself can be considered an output of the
surgical team or an input into the health of the patient.
◉ What is a life year? And what is it used for in the context of this
chapter?
Answer: One additional year of life. It can equal one added year of
life for an individual or an average of 1/nth of a year of life for n
people. An example is spending $1 million by reducing childhood
obesity and saving thousands of lives or using if for colonoscopies in
81 year old african american men and saving few lives.
, ◉ What are examples of interventions that have the most impact on
life years and those that have less impact?
Answer: Interventions with the most include antismoking, reducing
childhood obesity, and multidisciplinary measurement of heart
failure. Interventions with the least include colonoscopies for african
american men who are 81 or 76 and multidisciplinary heart failure
measurement with exercise.
◉ How does healthcare spending per person in the US compare to
other countries?
Answer: US spends far more per person on healthcare than any
other large countries.
◉ How does US life expectancy at birth compare to other countries?
Answer: 27 out of 34 of the OECD countries (bad!)
◉ Has the US achieved the same increases in life expectancy relative
to their changes in spending as in other countries?
Answer: From one perspective, this increase in life expectancy
reflects impres-sive performance. From another, it does not compare
well to the performance of other industrialized countries. For
example, French life expectancy at birth rose from 79.2 years in
2000 to 82.4 years in 2015, and costs increased less than half as
much in France as in the United States
WITH SCARCITY, INSURANCE, AND MARKET
FAILURE CONCEPTS
◉ What is opportunity cost?
Answer: Potential loss from a missed opportunity. Passing up the
next best choice.
◉ What does "marginal" refer to?
Answer: The examination of the costs and benefits through a small
change in the production of goods
◉ What does efficiency refer to?
Answer: No way to rearrange production of goods in a way that
makes one person more better off without making somebody else
worse off. How well an economy uses scare resources to meet the
needs/wants of their customers
◉ How do positive economic statements differ from normative
economic statements?
Answer: Positive economics is objective while normative economics
is subjective. Facts/ What is vs What should be
,◉ How can economics be applied to the health sector?
Answer: Describe, Explain, Evaluate, Plan
◉ As we progress through the chapters, think about the special
characteristics that apply to the health sector that might limit the
applicability of traditional economic models.
Answer: Social determinants of health, few insurance companies
that providers rely on, not a perfectly competitive market
◉ How are healthcare products both outputs and inputs? Can you
give an example?
Answer: Products (goods and services are considered products) are
commonly both inputs and outputs. For example, a surgical tool is an
input into a surgery and an output of a surgical tool company.
Similarly, the surgery itself can be considered an output of the
surgical team or an input into the health of the patient.
◉ What is a life year? And what is it used for in the context of this
chapter?
Answer: One additional year of life. It can equal one added year of
life for an individual or an average of 1/nth of a year of life for n
people. An example is spending $1 million by reducing childhood
obesity and saving thousands of lives or using if for colonoscopies in
81 year old african american men and saving few lives.
, ◉ What are examples of interventions that have the most impact on
life years and those that have less impact?
Answer: Interventions with the most include antismoking, reducing
childhood obesity, and multidisciplinary measurement of heart
failure. Interventions with the least include colonoscopies for african
american men who are 81 or 76 and multidisciplinary heart failure
measurement with exercise.
◉ How does healthcare spending per person in the US compare to
other countries?
Answer: US spends far more per person on healthcare than any
other large countries.
◉ How does US life expectancy at birth compare to other countries?
Answer: 27 out of 34 of the OECD countries (bad!)
◉ Has the US achieved the same increases in life expectancy relative
to their changes in spending as in other countries?
Answer: From one perspective, this increase in life expectancy
reflects impres-sive performance. From another, it does not compare
well to the performance of other industrialized countries. For
example, French life expectancy at birth rose from 79.2 years in
2000 to 82.4 years in 2015, and costs increased less than half as
much in France as in the United States
