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Health Rationing

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Submitted By mauk002
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The World Health Organisation (2011) defines health as a commodity which encapsulates the physical, social and mental aspects of wellbeing, a holistic shift from the biomedical view of health being the mere absence of disease and infirmity. However, due to the rising demand of the merit good this has resulted in a rationalisation of health dependent on supply available, its distribution and consumers’ willingness to pay (Light & Hughs, 2001). With the growing demand for health care and government coverage compounded with the decline of doctors and health resources to meet such demand, governing agents and economists have had to use alternative methods to ration these goods to sustain health resources to maximise its benefit i.e., through implicit and explicit rationing. This essay therefore aims to describe both methods used in regards to booking systems of elective services in New Zealand, to portray how health resources are prioritised upon patients but furthermore aim to show how although implicit methods are desirable, explicit rationing adopted in New Zealand is a more practical option to not only sustaining health resources but provides consumers the ability to make rational choices regarding personal and familial health.
For the scope of this essay we will discuss both elective and urgent conditions, because the blurred lines separating the two. An elective condition is a non-urgent illness that does not require immediate treatment, whereas an urgent condition is one where that if left untreated can result in either death or disability (Derret, 2005). However, in relation to elective service prioritisation in practice it is difficult to differentiate what accounts for an elective surgery and what is urgent. For example, a non-urgent illness if left untreated may progress into a more acute or chronic health issue.
Historically, prior to the introduction

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