Jornal de Comunicações de Cuidados de Saúde Acesso livre

Abstrato

Theories of Supply and Demand, Problems and Peculiarities in the Healthcare Sector: Its Effects on Health Policy

Iliadis Christos,Tsaloglidou Areti,Koukourikos Konstantinos and Kourkouta Lambrini

Introduction: In recent years, many attempts have been made by economists to investigate whether health good is private and whether health services can be defined by free market mechanisms, in particular supply and demand mechanisms, or whether it is a public good that can only be effectively distributed through policies adopted by the state.

Purpose: The purpose of this review is to identify supply and demand theories, problems and specifics in the health sector, and their implications for health policy.

Literature review: A scrutinized review of the Greek and international literature was carried out. The material of the study was manuscripts on the subject found in Greek and international electronic databases such as: Google Scholar, Mednet, Pubmed and the Association of Hellenic Academic libraries (HEAL-Link).

Results: The laws of supply and demand do not seem to work in the health sector as health commodity has very specific features that distinguish it from any other goods determined by market and demand mechanisms. The first peculiarity associated with health commodity is the uncertainty existing in all citizens and significantly affects their choices. Specifically, the individual cannot know whether he will be ill in the future or whether he will be ill from a particular disease, to be able to save a certain amount that could be used in a similar case.

Conclusion: In the free market where most private goods are traded, quantities and prices are determined by demand and supply mechanisms. In particular, consumers being fully informed about their requirements and characteristics of the products and services, they are in demand of concrete quantities of them.