What Is Your Health Concerns

 

WHAT IS HEALTH CARE ECONOMICS AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Health care economics is a term used to describe the various factors that converge to influence the health care industry’s costs and spending. As a field of study, health care economics seeks to understand the role that individuals, health care providers, insurers, government agencies, and public and private organizations play in driving these costs.

Health care economics can be approached from several perspectives depending on the specific challenge you’re facing. For example, in the Harvard Online course Health Care Economics, Harvard Medical School faculty organize the discussion around six key areas:

1. Spending growth
2. The role of the patient
3. The role of the provider
4. The impacts of risk and insurance
5. Benefits design
6. Payment reform