Explain the Health Economics?

Health economics concentrates on application of the principles and rules of economics in the sphere of health. In broad terms, it includes analysis and evaluation of health policy and the health system from an economic perspective. In particular, it includes health system planning, market mechanisms, demand and supply of health care, economic evaluation of individual diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, determinants of health and its evaluation, and evaluation of the performance of health care systems in terms of equity and efficiency. The process involves calculating the cost incurred to tackle the problem and the consequences, which are because of the problem. A decision is then taken in where to invest so that maximum benefits are achieved with the existing resources. In general the costs and consequences from a health perspective are given in Table. It shows various direct, indirect and tangible costs involved in managing the problems. It also shows the consequences like morbidity, mortality and pain suffering as a result of the occurrence of problems.

Table:  Cost of managing health problems and consequences

Analysis and evaluation of health policy and system is important because it helps us to plan the targeting of health resources required for alleviating the problems. We already know that there are multiple causes of malnutrition, so just focusing on health resources will not help solve the problems. Since nutrition is a determinant of health, focus on food resources becomes very critical. We will discuss food resources in detail under nutrition economics later. Now let us review the economics aspects of causes and consequences of malnutrition.