THE EFFECT OF GOOD MEDICAL SUPPORTS FOR THE PEOPLE

Economic recessions have paradoxical effects on the mortality trends of populations in rich countries. Contrary to what might have been expected, economic downturns during the 20th century were associated with declines in mortality rates. Non-trivial expenditures are warranted because medical knowledge, once produced, is a public good whose benefits can be enjoyed by all. Yet even with the substantial public expenditures indicated above, the social benefits from greater investment in medical knowledge may far outstrip costs, so that current investment is too low whether in fact it is too low is the empirical issue that we take up.

The first is how the income generated by economic growth is used, particularly whether it is used to expand public services appropriately and to reduce the burden of poverty. What is the economic value of improvements in health and life expectancy? Armed with a suitable economic framework for this problem, we are able to estimate the economic value of the changes in life expectancy observed over the past several decades. Our results imply that the economic value of these gains has been enormous.

Besides, the economic gains from increasing life expectancy are rising over time. We show that the economic return to improvements in health are greater, the larger is the population, the higher are average lifetime incomes, the greater the existing level of health and the closer the ages of the population to the age of onset of disease. We find that the growth and aging of the population alone will raise the economic returns to advances against many diseases. Projected increases in increases in real incomes and life expectancy will add at least that much again.

Apart from that, we also show that improvements in health are complimentary with one another, for example, improvements in life expectancy increase the economic value of further improvements by raising the value of remaining life. This means that advances against one disease, say heart disease, raise the economic value of progress against other diseases, such as cancer. This is of significant empirical relevance, as it implies that the well-documented historical progress against heart disease, has increased the economic returns to research on cancer and other diseases.

 In a nutshell, with all the benefits that medical supports to public, we hope that they will use them wisely. It is for their own good and the government always tries to give their best to the people to ensure they have good health condition.

By : NUR KHALISAH NADIAH MOHD ZIN