Arrow's Concept of the Health Care Consumer: A Forty-Year Retrospective

The consumer of medical care is in a unique situation for several reasons. First, in general, the consumer is not well informed about health and medical care, certainly much less well informed than are physicians. Second, demand for care is probabilistic depending on the person's health state,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health politics, policy and law policy and law, 2001-10, Vol.26 (5), p.899-912
Main Author: Sloan, Frank A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising as Topic
Arrow, Kenneth Joseph
Consumer behavior
Consumer Behavior - economics
Consumer behaviour
Consumer preferences
Consumers
Consumption
Decision making
Economic Competition
Economics
Economics, Medical - history
Economics, Medical - trends
Empowerment
Externality
Gallbladder
Health Behavior
Health care
Health care policy
Health Care Sector - history
Health Care Sector - trends
Health Care Services
Health Care Services Policy
Health economics
Health risk assessment
Health risks
Health Services Needs and Demand - economics
History, 20th Century
Humans
Informed Consent
Kenneth Joseph Arrow
Learning
Malpractice
Managed Care Services
Medicine and Health
Models, Economic
Nonprofit hospitals
Patients
Personal health
Physician-Patient Relations
Physicians
Policy studies
Politics
Professional Autonomy
Public Health and Health Policy
Public Policy
Quality of life
Social Welfare - economics
Social Welfare - history
Sovereignty
Studies
United States
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Summary:The consumer of medical care is in a unique situation for several reasons. First, in general, the consumer is not well informed about health and medical care, certainly much less well informed than are physicians. Second, demand for care is probabilistic depending on the person's health state, which is also probabilistic. Third, many consumption decisions, such as purchase of food and even housing, are repeated events. Almost 4 decades have elapsed since publication of Kenneth Arrow's article, and in that time, 2 types of changes have occurred. First, views about consumers in general and health care consumers in particular have evolved, and there is much more empirical evidence on this subject than was available in 1963. Second, the institutional context in which the health care consumer operates has changed.
ISSN:0361-6878
1527-1927
DOI:10.1215/03616878-26-5-899