Economic Terms and Health Care History
Jodi Meaux Broussard
University of Phoenix
November 13, 2012
HCS/440
Health Care economics has been around for a long time. There have been many changes over the years. Health care economics are there to figure out what issues are in health care and try to come up with a plan to fix the problem. Economists also analyze every possible issue and solution in order to fix the problem. “Health economists use the concept of demand to ask how the quantity of services used varies as price changes (Getzen & Allen, 2007).” Health Economists must make some tough choices, but that’s why they are called Health Economists. Economist also use demand to make their medical decisions. One of the main fields in economics is microeconomics, “that analyzes the market behavior of individual consumers and firms in an attempt to understand the decision-making process of firms and households("Microeconomics," 2012).” In the 1900’s the American Medical Association(AMA) became a powerful national force. In 1901 the AMA reorganizes and is the national organization of state and local associations. In 1900 there were only around 8,000 physicians and in 1910 it increased to about 70,000. They call this period “the beginning of organized medicine”. More surgical techniques are starting to get used more and more. Doctors aren’t expected to give free services to their patients and the railroad industry is the leading industry for employee medical programs. Around the 1910’s are now modern scientific institutes. Health insurance is starting to gain support from progressive reformers. There was a first national conference that the American Association of Labor Legislation(AALL) gave for “social insurance”. In the 1920’s there wasn’t a huge effort to change health insurance. The reformers now started to argue over the cost of medical care other than the loss of wages due
References: Getzen, T.E., & Allen, B. (2007). Health Care Economics: Principles and Tools for the Health Care Industry [University of Phoenix Custom Edition eBook]. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, HCS/440 website. Healthcare Crisis. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/history.htm Microeconomics. (2012). In Investopedia. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/microeconomics.asp#axzz2C9eNor6p