health economics

Health Economics
Institution
Student

Introduction
Health economics is a unique branch of economics that applies the fundamental principle of demand and supply sparingly. A patient or government cannot value the healthcare service provided by a doctor or nurse, just because it’s a field that requires specialization. Only another doctor can judge the medication to be either appropriate or insignificant.
Part A
The key players in the healthcare industry include patients, providers, payers, vendors, and government. Patients are the demanders of the healthcare service. The patient is the sick person who seeks medical attention. Illness creates employment for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and vendors. Healthcare industry is crucial in every economy because it gives the sick an opportunity to be relieved their pain. This consequently results in prolonged lifespan in cases where death would have terminated one’s life.
Providers are players who stand between the patient and the payer. Providers of healthcare services include the doctors, institutions, nurses, and other medical specialists. Hospitals are classified as profit-making (21 percent of all hospitals in the USA), non-profit hospices (58%) and government healthcare institutions (21%). The providers fall under small group or individual practitioners. Health specialists assess, evaluate and test according to his knowledge in the field. There are various experts in the medical sector (Muller et al., 2006). Some may only deal with teeth and nothing else, that is, dentists.

Payers include insurance companies in which the patients have taken cover under, employers, government, family relative(s) and the individual patient. The purpose of the payer is only to offset the bills and expenses incurred by the ill client who has been provided with the necessary medical attention.
The business of vendors is just to supply providers with the hospital equipment/instruments and products. They provide according to orders placed by the providers because they are ones acquainted with the necessities as per the prevailing circumstances. Government plays the role of regulating and controlling the institutions that provide health care. It is in charge of licensing and legalizing the adequately equipped clinics and hospitals to commence provision of healthcare services. Thus, they ensure the provision of quality services and therefore, impact the health economy positively.
Part B
The market purist position is where people buy the services and goods they have. The invisible hand of the market is tasked with producing the optimal outcome. In an ordinary economy such as that of USA, there will be poor and rich folks. The poor are unable to purchase the services and goods from the sellers. In such as case, the government is tasked with the responsibility to tax the rich and transfer money to the disadvantaged. The move is helpful in enabling the poor access the healthcare services they need. Leaving the market to establish the equilibrium on its own will endeavor to dissatisfy everybody since the less wealthy will not be able to participate.
Though a market may be well-functioning, it may not be at a position to provide public goods by itself. Healthcare has been debated for a while on whether it is a public or private good. Nevertheless, in the USA government system, health is presumed to be a public good that every individual is entitled to enjoy without restriction or limitation. Other goods that follow such a suit are the pest control program and a well-functioning legal system. Therefore, the government has been convinced enough to provide financing of healthcare to all its citizens (GPO, 2010). Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act by the government is an intervention that is appropriate in bettering the economy and the people standard of living. Patients are protected through provision of sewage systems, proper pest control, and water purification system as part of the government of purview in the health expenditures.
In spite of current health conditions, the future ought to be taken care off as well. At times, abnormal multiplication or mutation of genes leading to cancer and accidents are inevitable. Despite the medical science having treatment for such cases, the catastrophic levels of expenditures borne by the families leave the vulnerable uncovered and risky to succumb to such illnesses. Health insurance is the optimal remedy for such sudden and strange health complications. Nevertheless, the health insurance agency endeavor to eliminate the riskiest persons due to their inability to meet the monthly insurance costs. Thus the government intervenes by buying insurance for needy citizens.
Lastly, the government has a role to play in setting prices for both the consumers and providers to avoid monopolization of power by the medical experts. The control is essential in restricting providers from exploiting the patients by recommending them more quantity than clinically justified for their selfish gain.
Part C
Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is a dangerous lung disease rampant and prevalent in people who smoke the cigarette. Due to its dormancy in its early stages, it has low survival rate and only shows up in advanced stages. The most effective but expensive treatment for lung cancer is chemotherapy and surgery. The disease causes abnormal growth of cells in the lung linings. The condition caters for about 20% of the total cancer deaths above prostate cancer, bowel cancer, and breast cancer (Lee, 2003).
The lung cancer cannot be transmitted from an individual to another, but one can acquire it if he spends time with smokers. The most efficient means to prevent lung cancer is to stop smoking altogether. Both passive and active smoking contributes to darkening of the lung lining. Therefore, reducing exposure to all forms of tobacco will play a major role in preventing the disorder.
Early before the 1950s, lung cancer was a rare disease. People including doctors did not agree with the research finding that smoke is the principal cause of lung cancer. Nevertheless, as the time lapses, lung cancer is becoming one of the deadly sicknesses. The current epidemiology gives the future predictions on lung cancer. The prospect as per ongoing studies shows that over 100,000 deaths will be as a result of lung cancer due to massive sales of cigarette in the USA annually.
Cost-benefit analysis
Treatment of cancer is expensive but it cannot with the effect of losing a person primarily to his/her loved ones. The disease does not discriminate but preferably adheres to the preventive measures. Only those that respect and adhere to the preventive precautions are free from the lung cancer. Lung cancer causes the death of essential personalities in the economy including doctors and senior executive experts. These professionals cost the government a lot of resources to acquire the expertise and thus to lose them becomes a total mess to the society. Thus treatment of the disease stands a better option though costly (Molina et al., 2008). For instance, a doctor will help save more lives. Though to stop smoking tobacco is difficult, the smokers ought to see the impending consequences and avoid it. Prevention is better than cure.

References
GPO, U. (2010). ‘Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (HR 3590). Washington, DC. Available.
Lee, I. M. (2003). Physical activity and cancer prevention–data from epidemiologic studies. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 35(11), 1823-1827.
Molina, J. R., Yang, P., Cassivi, S. D., Schild, S. E., & Adjei, A. A. (2008, May). Non-small cell lung cancer: epidemiology, risk factors, treatment, and survivorship. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 83, No. 5, pp. 584-594). Elsevier.
Muller, M. E., Muller, M., Bezuidenhout, M., & Jooste, K. (2006). Health care service management. Juta and Company Ltd.