Introduction
Demand and supply in health care have some specific characteristics. Factors such as price, income levels, demographics, and changing patient tastes affect how strong people’s desire for health care services will be (Wellay et al., 2018). The critical difference between the demand for health care and the demand for other goods is that patients will find it harder to refuse treatment even if it is costly. It is especially true in a situation when their health is threatened. For example, if the price of luxury goods increases, people will prefer not to buy them. However, because human health is such an important and unconditional value, people will have to pay more than they can actually afford.
Discussion
Supply is the number of medical services that doctors can provide at a given time to the population. The supply of medical services is influenced by the following factors: changes in price, improvements in medical equipment and technology, the appearance of new medical services provided by competitors, and increases in tax rates. For instance, the number of manufacturers present in the market decreases when the price falls. What distinguishes the supply of health care from the supply of other goods is that it requires a long time for new health care providers to enter the market. It takes several years before a student becomes a qualified doctor or nurse.
The uniqueness of the healthcare industry lies in its extreme importance to the survival of all humanity. The life expectancy of people and the world’s overall health depend on how effectively health care providers can treat patients. They are especially important during outbreaks of diseases, such as the coronavirus pandemic (Liu et al., 2020).
Conclusion
The unconditional importance of health care is what makes it so recession-proof. Even in times of economic downturn, people will not be able to refuse medical services because their lives depend on them. As noted earlier, increases in the price of medical services are not capable of causing patients to refuse treatment altogether.
References
Liu, Q., Luo, D., Haase, J. E., Guo, Q., Wang, X. Q., Liu, S., Xia, L., Liu, Z., Yang, J., & Yang, B. X. (2020). The experiences of health-care providers during the COVID-19 crisis in China: A qualitative study.The Lancet Global Health, 8(6), 790–798. Web.
Wellay, T., Gebreslassie, M., Mesele, M., Gebretinsa, H., Ayel, B., Tewelde, A., & Zewedie, Y. (2018). Demand for health care service and associated factors among patients in the community of Tsegedie District, Northern Ethiopia.BMC Health Services Research, 18(697), 1-9. Web.