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Healtcare Costs in the US

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Growth in national health spending closely tracked growth in nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 and 2011, and health spending as a share of GDP remained stable from 2009 through 2011, at 17.9 percent (Micah et al., 2011).

Based on the above information, answer the following questions:

Define the economic principle of opportunity cost.
Locate current GDP expenditures and express the percentages in a graph or a chart.
Explain whether spending 17.9% of GDP is too much or too little to spend on healthcare.
Defend your position using the concept of opportunity cost and highlight specific GDP expenditures that are impacted by healthcare expenditure (opportunity cost).
Reference:

Micah, H., Martin A. B., Benson, J., Catlin, A., & The National Health Expenditure
Accounts Team (2011). National Health Spending In 2011: Overall Growth
Remains Low, But Some Payers And Services Show Signs Of Acceleration.
Health Affairs. Retrieved from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/32/
1/87.abstract

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Solution Summary

This solution of 603 words defines the principle of economic cost and relates it to healthcare spending and locates current GDP expenditures in percentages. It also analyzes the cost of healthcare in the US compared to other countries. References used are included.

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Healthcare Costs
Growth in national health spending closely tracked growth in nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 and 2011, and health spending as a share of GDP remained stable from 2009 through 2011, at 17.9 percent (Micah et al., 2011).
Based on the above information, answer the following questions:
Define the economic principle of opportunity cost.

The principle of opportunity cost is stated simply as this, "What you sacrifice to get something." Opportunity cost is the notion of scarcity and there is always a trade-off. There is a trade-off of one thing for another because resources are limited and we can be used in different ways. By having something, we must up resources that could have been used to acquire something else. Opportunity cost allows us to measure this trade-off. Most decisions involve a trade-offs. For example, we spend an hour studying for an economics exam, but we will have less than an hour to pursue other activities. Suppose the alternatives to ...

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