Technology: Blessing or Curse in Health Care Costs? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Technologies are usually extolled for improving health status, enhancing the quality of care, and saving lives. On the same note, technology is censured as a dominant factor liable for the progressive increase in medical costs. Some new technologies may reduce costs by limiting costly health consequences or replacing more costly alternatives (cost-saving); however, the overall effect increases costs (cost-increasing). Highly expensive items such as diagnostic imaging systems, new biotechnology, and organ transplantation products attract a significant share of both blame and praise (Willemé & Dumont, 2015). The collective knowledge among health economists is that the constant increase in health care costs is driven by the diffusion and development of new devices, drugs, procedures, and techniques for caring for patients; hence the cost-increasing innovation is in continuous use.

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However, there also exist healthcare various examples of innovative processes and products that decrease rather than inflate the rate of spending; without these, total spending would be growing faster than they are (Hernandez et al., 2015). Generally, the inclusive impact of trending technology on health care spending is much broader. The literal payment of a capital-embodied technology encompasses not only the capital cost but also the operating costs required to implement it, which may incorporate insurance, supervisory personnel, training, space, and supplies. Thus, cost-increasing innovation will continue to be used (Willemé & Dumont, 2015).

The Role of Health Labor Market in Addressing Workforce Shortage

Imbalance in the health workforce a challenge regularly addressed by the researchers, media, and policymakers; however, the health labor market has significantly contributed to addressing the issue. Imbalances might have adverse consequences such as lower productivity of health services, quality or increasing wait time, and underutilization of trained personnel. The health labor market has helped in projections of physician supply and requirements (Drennan & Ross, 2019). According to George, the global demand for health workers is presumed to increase to 80 million health workers by 2030, leaving a worldwide shortfall of nearly 18 million health workers, especially in lower-income countries (Liu et al., 2016).

The health labor market also helps estimate monopsony models of nursing labor markets. These estimates are the presentation of the inverse elasticity of demand and supply of nursing services to the specific hospital and the quantity, which is an exact measure of employer market power (Drennan & Ross, 2019). Analyzing the health labor market enhances the understanding of the factors that necessitate human resources for health; thus, it results in more effective interventions and policies addressing the imbalance workforce (Drennan & Ross, 2019).

References

Drennan, V. M., & Ross, F. (2019). Global nurse shortages—the facts, the impact and action for change. British medical bulletin, 130(1), 25-37. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31086957/

Hernandez, J., Machacz, S. F., & Robinson, J. C. (2015). US hospital payment adjustments for innovative technology lag behind those in Germany, France, and Japan. Health Affairs, 34(2), 261-270. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2014.1017

Liu, J. X., Goryakin, Y., Maeda, A., Bruckner, T., & Scheffler, R. (2016). Global health workforce labor market projections for 2030. The World Bank. https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/1813-9450-7790

Willemé, P., & Dumont, M. (2015). Machines that go ‘ping’: medical technology and health expenditures in OECD countries. Health economics, 24(8), 1027-1041. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3089