Business Economics Population Health Metrics

Question: Discuss about the Business Economics for Population Health Metrics. Answer: Introduction: One of the most fatal diseases that plagues mankind is cancer. Cancer involves the abnormal and uncontrolled multiplication of the cells which tends to spread and cause damage to the neighboring tissues. Australia has a high incidence of cancer due to prevalence of large smoking population. This population needs immediate treatment and operation. Even though the government is taking steps to enable higher operations for this vulnerable population but this cannot be attained without increasing the budget spending on the same (Hansen, 2013). However, the government faces the budgetary constraints and has limited resources which need to be allocated efficiently. The aim of this study is to discuss this issue from the economic perspective in particular applying the various demand and supply concepts to highlight the impact on the number of operations conducted in this regard. Also, the objective is to discuss the critical issue at hand and offer pragmatic solution which can be adopted by the government. Analysis While it is thought that price is the only factor impacting demand, in actuality there are a host of other factors that also impact demand such as changes in consumer preferences, income level and the substitute availability. However, there is no denying the price plays a key role in the determination of demand and tends to have a negative relationship with price. The product or service supply is also impacted by the underlying price and usually with higher prices, the supply increases as the suppliers profit typically rises (Mankiw, 2014). This theoretical framework would now be applied to the cancer operation as graphically shown below. The central objective as captured in the graph above is that in order to increase the overall supply of count of cancer operations for the suffering people, it is imperative to bring down the overall operation cost. However, this would typically require subsidization of the operations from the governments end and thus lowering the burden for the customers which would achieve the objective of more people being able to avail requisite medical care (Krugman Wells, 2013). However, considering the limited financial resources that the government has at hand and also the current status of the economy, it seems difficult for the government to bear further burden (Maxwell et. al, 2012). Going forward, the incidence of cancer amongst smokers would increase only and if the supply remains constant, then increased demand would cause the price to escalate as shown below. Hence, it is evident that in the future this problem would become graver and larger government resource allocation would be required so as to maintain the price at the same level as before (Lancet, 2015). Hence, it would be imperative for the government to bring about a fundamental alteration in the production possibility curve so that there is an increase in the cancer operation supply. PPF may be defined as the graphical representation of the various goods and services combination whose production may be done given the available resources. It plays a critical role with regards to defining the production combinations that are feasible and those which are not. The current situation demands that cancer operation be treated as one particular good and all other goods be combined together as the other good. The resultant PPF would be as shown below (Pindyck Rubinfeld, 2001). At the point E of the PPF, the production of goods except cancer operation is pegged at M with S being the production with regards to cancer operation. For enhancing the cancer operation supply within the given resources and efficiency level, the production choice would have to be shifted from E to E1. At this point, the supply of cancer operations has increased but at a decrease in the supply of other goods as indicated in the curve shown above, Thus, it is imperative that the from the various points on the PPF, the government should choose an optimum level by deploying the concept of opportunity cost. This would adequately reflect the priorities of the government (Nicholson Snyder, 2011). Hence, as the incidence of cancer enhances, the opportunity cost would also increase and thereby more resources would be allocated to the supply of cancer operations. However, a downside would be that production of other goods would be adversely impacted, hence it makes sense that the government spends on research and development so as to come up with drugs so as to reduce the demand for operation (Lancet, 2015). Further, technological breakthroughs should also be aimed with regards to cancer operations so as to bring down the overall cost and hence ensure better coverage without higher subsidy burden on the government (Maxwell et. al., 2014). Conclusion: Based on the above discussion, it may be concluded that resource allocation plays a critical role in the supply of certain services such as cancer. Since the demand is largely price inelastic, hence it is imperative to increase the supply through efficiency resource allocation in the present and to aim for better technology in the future which reduces the cost and makes the availability of cancer operation less costly so that the burden on the exchequer could be reduced. Reference List Hansen, J 2013, Forgotten cancers are killing Australians amid funding shortfalls, Daily Telegraph, Available online from https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/forgotten-cancers-are-killing-australians-amid-funding-shortfalls/story-fni0cx12-1226690798500 (Accessed on August 23, 3016) Krugman, P Wells, G 2013, Microeconomics, 3rd eds. Worth Publishers, London Lancet 2015, Worldwide shortfall in access to cancer surgery could cost big, Scimex Website, Available online from https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/inadequate-access-to-cancer-surgery-could-result-in-us-$12-trillion-impact-by-2030 (Accessed on August 23, 2016) Mankiw, G 2014, Microeconomics, 6th eds., Worth Publishers, London Nicholson, W Snyder, C 2011, Fundamentals of Microeconomics, 11th eds., Cengage Learning, New York Maxwell, S, OLeary, P, Slevin, T Moorin, R 2014, The increase in cancer prevalence and hospital burden in Western Australia, 19922011, Population Health Metrics, Available online from https://pophealthmetrics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12963-014-0033-x (Accessed on August 23, 2016) Pindyck, R Rubinfeld, D 2001, Microeconomics, 5th eds., Prentice-Hall Publications, London