Economics for Public Health
Test Preparation
Course Introduction
Economics for Public Health explores the fundamental concepts and analytical tools of economics as they apply to health and healthcare systems. The course examines how economic principles influence public health decision-making, resource allocation, healthcare financing, and health policy development. Key topics include the economics of health behaviors, market failures in healthcare, cost-effectiveness analysis, and economic evaluation of public health interventions. By understanding the role of incentives, efficiency, and equity, students will learn to assess the impact of economic factors on population health and design effective public health strategies.
Recommended Textbook Health Economics 6th Edition by Rexford E.
Santerre
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16 Chapters
240 Verified Questions
240 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/3933
Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction
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15 Verified Questions
15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) All points along the production possibilities frontier maximize equity.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Which of the following accounts for the greatest amount of health care spending?
A) Public health
B) Physician services
C) Prescription drugs
D) Nursing home care
E) Hospital services
Answer: E
Q3) Which of the following best describes allocative efficiency?
A) Producing a medical service at the lowest possible cost.
B) Constructing a new medical facility to exactly offset a market shortage of such services.
C) Increasing the amount of hospital beds available such that each person in the population served has a bed allocated to him/her.
D) None of the above.
E) More than one of the above statements is true.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Health and Medical Care: an Economic Perspective
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15 Verified Questions
15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is included in the health production function?
A) Age
B) State of medical technology
C) Gender
D) Income
E) All of the above
Answer: E
Q2) Better macroeconomic conditions have a positive overall impact on health.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Advancements in medical technology allow people to obtain greater amounts of health with the same amount of medical care.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) There is a constant relationship between increases in health and utility. A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Cost and Benefit Analysis
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15 Verified Questions
15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a limitation of cost-benefit analysis?
A) Difficulty choosing the correct discount rate
B) Difficulty measuring the value of a human life
C) Difficulty measuring the dollar value of gains / losses in utility
D) Both a and c are correct
E) All of the above
Answer: E
Q2) Money spent on transportation to a medical care provider is an example of
A) direct medical care costs
B) direct nonmedical costs
C) indirect costs
D) deadweight loss
E) None of the above.
Answer: B
Q3) The use of a larger discount rate will result in a lower present value when estimating the costs and benefits of new medical technology.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: Health Care Systems and Institutions
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15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following countries provides universal health insurance coverage?
A) United States
B) Germany
C) Switzerland
D) United Kingdom
E) Canada
Q2) The majority of U.S. hospitals operate as non-profit organizations.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following refers to a situation where the health insurer reimburses 100% of the amount spent on medical services?
A) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010
B) Managed care
C) Coinsurance
D) First dollar coverage
E) both c and d
Q4) The purchase of insurance eliminates the risk of financial loss for all parties.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: The Demand for Medical Care
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15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since the demand for medical care is derived from the demand for good health, an increase in income will decrease the demand for medical care.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The _______ refers to how many more or fewer people buy a product when its price changes.
A) intensive margin
B) extensive margin
C) nominal demand
D) effective demand
E) fuzzy demand
Q3) Time costs of acquiring medical care are considered _______.
A) direct non-medical costs
B) direct medical costs
C) opportunity costs
D) both a and b
E) both a and c
Q4) Demand for most medical services in the U.S. has been found to be inelastic.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: The Demand for Medical Insurance: Traditional and Managed Care Coverage
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15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to John Nyman, the reduction in utility due to the payment of an insurance premium when healthy is less than the increase in utility from an equal income transfer when ill. Which of the following best explains why this is true?
A) As incomes increase, people gain greater utility from additional income.
B) When sick, people no longer behave rationally.
C) As incomes decrease, people gain greater utility from additional income.
D) When healthy, people are able to get more enjoyment from their income.
E) John Nyman is incorrect.
Q2) If Sarah has an income of $50,000 when healthy, and faces a probability of 0.15 of losing $10,000 of this due to an illness, what is her expected income?
A) $17,500
B) $40,000
C) $48,500
D) $44,000
E) $16,000
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Chapter 7: Medical Care Production and Costs
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15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The _______ of nurses is represented as the total amount of medical services produced divided by the total amount of nurse-labor.
A) marginal product
B) marginal cost
C) average product
D) opportunity cost
E) none of the above
Q2) If the average product of dental assistants is _______, then the marginal product of that labor must be _______ its average product.
A) increasing; less than B) decreasing; equal to C) decreasing; less than D) increasing; equal to E) decreasing; greater than
Q3) If a hospital is cost-minimizing, then the marginal productivity per dollar spent on physicians must be equal to the marginal productivity per dollar spent on nurses. A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Structure, Conduct, Performance, and Market Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Product differentiation may stem from which of the following?
A) Location
B) Quality
C) Advertising
D) All of the above
E) None of the above
Q2) If there is an increase in the number of registered nurses and the demand for medical services remains unchanged, what should be expected to happen to the real hourly wage for registered nurses?
A) The real hourly wage should increase.
B) The real hourly wage should only increase if the demand for medical services is inelastic.
C) The real hourly wage should only decrease if the demand for medical services is elastic.
D) The real hourly wage should decrease.
E) The real hourly wage should only increase if the demand for medical services is elastic.
Q3) In the long-run, economic profits will be zero in monopolistic competition.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Government, Health, and Medical Care
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15 Verified Questions
15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Flu vaccinations are an example of _______.
A) positive demand-side externality
B) negative supply-side externality
C) no externality
D) negative demand-side externality
E) positive supply-side externality
Q2) If a price ceiling in a competitive market for physician services is effective, it will result in a market ______ of physician services due to the _______ price.
A) surplus; lower
B) surplus; higher
C) shortage; higher
D) shortage; lower
E) none of the above
Q3) A price ceiling will increase the quantity of medical care produced in a monopoly market.
A)True
B)False
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11
Chapter 10: Government As Health Insurer
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Sample Questions
Q1) "Crowding out" due to an expansion of Medicaid requirements is best described by which of the following?
A) A family chooses to remain covered under employer-sponsored private health insurance.
B) An uninsured family chooses to enroll in Medicaid due to a low household income.
C) A family newly eligible withdraws from an employer-sponsored private health insurance and enrolls in Medicaid.
D) both b and c
E) none of the above
Q2) The majority of financing for Medicaid programs comes from _______.
A) the federal government
B) state governments
C) individual premiums
D) charitable care
E) none of the above
Q3) At the age of 65, individuals are automatically enrolled in Medicare Part B.
A)True
B)False
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12
Chapter 11: The Private Health Insurance Industry
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15 Verified Questions
15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) _______ reasons that firm-size classes with expanding populations are more efficient than those with shrinking populations over time.
A) Scale Economies
B) Economies of Scope
C) Survivor Theory
D) Search Frictions
E) none of the above
Q2) Which of the following reasons might explain why health insurance purchased as a group might be less costly than coverage purchased individually?
A) Greater bargaining power
B) Risk spreading over a larger number of people
C) Lower marketing costs for the provider
D) Both a and b
E) All of the above
Q3) An increased HMO presence in insurance markets will likely increase premiums for consumers.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: The Physician Services Industry
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15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) _______ refers to the exploitation of asymmetric information to increase demand for physician services.
A) Physician inflation rate
B) Supplier-induced demand
C) Fee-for-service
D) Market equilibrium
E) none of the above
Q2) There is very little recent support for the existence of supplier-induced demand.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following reasons might explain why expenditures on physician services have increased?
A) Increased utilization
B) Increased practice costs
C) Increased physician incomes
D) All of the above
E) None of the above
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Chapter 13: The Hospital Services Industry
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Sample Questions
Q1) Assume that there are 5 equally sized hospitals in a market area. If two of these hospitals decide to merge, what will be the increase in the Herfindahl-Hirschman index?
A) 2000
B) 800
C) 1600
D) 2800
E) 400
Q2) Third-party payers representing a _______ market share have _______ negotiation power to obtain lower prices for hospital services.
A) small; greater
B) small; reduced
C) large; reduced
D) large; greater
E) both b and d
Q3) Certificates of need promote price competition amongst hospitals.
A)True
B)False
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Page 15
Chapter 14: The Pharmaceutical Industry
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Sample Questions
Q1) _______ advertising is supported by evidence showing that _______ detailed advertising of older products tends to be targeted at younger physicians.
A) Informative; more
B) Persuasive; less
C) Informative; less
D) Persuasive; more
E) both a and d
Q2) The U.S. government decreases competition within the pharmaceutical industry through the issuing of patents.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The FDA tends to focus more on reducing _______ errors since the victims are _______ identifiable than those from _______ errors.
A) type 1; less; type 2
B) type 2; more; type 1
C) type 2; less; type 1
D) type 1; more; type 2
E) None of the above
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16
Chapter 15: The Long-Term Care Industry
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15 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the largest purchaser of nursing home services?
A) Medicare
B) Medicaid
C) Private insurance
D) Out-of-pocket
E) Other
Q2) Barriers to entry in the nursing home industry are relatively low.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The market demand for long-term care represents a derived demand.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Retrospective payment systems _______ costs, _______ quality, and result in _______ severe patient case-mixes.
A) raise; diminish; more
B) raise; improve; less
C) decrease; improve; more
D) raise; improve; more
E) decrease; diminish; less
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Chapter 16: Health Insurance Reform
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the generic health plans would provide the greatest variety of insurance plan offerings?
A) Managed competition
B) National health insurance
C) Medical savings accounts
D) Individual mandates
E) Both a and c
Q2) Evidence suggests that medical care spending produces positive net benefits _______, but produces negligible net benefits _______.
A) on average; at the margin
B) at the margin; on the flat-of-the-curve
C) on the flat-of-the-curve; on average
D) at the margin; on average
E) on the flat-of-the-curve; at the margin
Q3) An individual mandate system reins in cost through highly competitive medical insurance markets.
A)True
B)False
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