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Perspectives Articles: Exploring Stakeholder Perspectives on What Is Affordable Health Care
Author(s) -
Rosenberg Marjorie A.,
Johnson, Jr. Paul H.,
Duncan Ian G.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
risk management and insurance review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.386
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1540-6296
pISSN - 1098-1616
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6296.2009.01174.x
Subject(s) - health care , stakeholder , public economics , gross domestic product , business , health insurance , health care cost , product (mathematics) , patient protection and affordable care act , actuarial science , economics , economic growth , public relations , political science , geometry , mathematics
Health care expenditures have accounted for increasing proportions of the U.S. gross domestic product, and the rate of growth of health care expenditures has increased over the past two decades. These two measures of assessing whether the level of health care expenditures is affordable may be appropriate in the aggregate for the United States but are not appropriate to assess whether individual stakeholder groups can afford their particular level of spending on health care. Health care is an economic good that differs from other economic goods, as it involves life and death issues, and invokes a call for a moral authority. This article explores definitions of what is affordable health care from the perspective of different stakeholders and suggests that other measures are needed to assess whether or not health care is affordable for stakeholders as one definition is not appropriate for all stakeholders.