Microeconomics Concepts: Health Care

Microeconomics Concepts Name Institutional Affiliation Microeconomics Concepts The Health Care and Social Assistance sector in the U.S. is made up of establishments that offer medical services and social assistance. As spending on health care continues to expand, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) established a satellite account to analyze macroeconomic data on health care. In the first quarter of 2019, the hospital and ambulatory health care services increased by 4.7% to 7.1% (bea.gov, 2019). The BEA project aimed at improving the way it measures the amount of resources that are spent by Americans on medical care. The health care sector is one of the fastest expanding sectors in the U.S., with statistics showing that hospitals and other healthcare services increased by 7.1% in 2019. Overall, the retail, finance, and health sectors contributed the largest margins to the U.S. economy, which was 3.1% increase of the real GDP. According to Dunn, Rittmueller, and Whitmire (2015), the spending on health care as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) was 17.4% in 2013. In the 3rd quarter of 2015, the health care sector contributed to a 2% increase in the economy, which was a 0.38 percentage point of the GDP. This expenditure has been increasing, and it is mainly attributed to the increase in the number of people receiving medical care and the rise in health care costs. The GDP is the most essential macroeconomic indicator that impacts on the health care sector. Some of the main factors related to GDP that should be monitored include the rising cost of care and the amount of government spending on the industry. Data published by BEA seeks to redefine the kind of treatment services offered to patients in order to clearly understand issues associated with spending on medical care. According to Werling et al. (2014), a report from Medicare and Medicaid centers showed that government spending on health care totaled to $2.8 trillion. Statistics indicate that nat...