Elasticity is an economic measure that specifies the sensitivity of one serious economic factor to another, such as changes to demand or changes to income. In the following discussion, the measure’s effects on healthcare will be depicted. In order to further validate the points being mentioned in the text, two recent articles depicting elasticity and its impacts on healthcare will be used as a reference.
The money being spent on healthcare is a very important investment for people of all financial statuses with all of the levels of payment on this field. Said point is also valid for different kinds of expenditure, such as inpatient, outpatient and nonmedical (Dubey, 2020) and the results are identical to the research made in 2013. Nonetheless, the vastness of elasticity is different among the various groups of income and levels of healthcare spending.
Healthcare expenditure demonstrates the increase in all of its main components since the beginning of the millennium. The funding from outside sources and private health insurance has improved marginally (Behera and Dash, 2020). However, it is important to consider how little improvement persists in the funding of healthcare insurance. The large amount of the undernourished population and the priority placed on immunization coverage may be the cause of negative healthcare outcomes in the future.
In conclusion, the funding of healthcare has made great progress since the beginning of the 21st century. With that in mind, it is also important to note that some of the areas of healthcare still receive very few investments or none whatsoever. Said underfunded areas may negatively impact the entire field of healthcare in the future. This is why a solution needs to be found in order to properly fund the underpaid areas of healthcare.
References
Behera, D. and Dash, U. (2020). Is Health Expenditure Effective For Achieving Goals? Imperical Evidence from South-East Asia. Springer
Dubey, J. (2020) Income Elasticity Of Demand For Healthcare And Its Change Over Time: Across The Income Groups And Levels of Health Expenditure In India. NIPFP