Evaluation of Health Services in Terms of Public Goods
Chapter from the book:
Yazıt,
H.
&
Köktürk,
N.
(eds.)
2023.
Research on Social Sciences- VIII.
Synopsis
One of the reasons for the existence of the state is to meet the social needs of people. People fulfill their private needs with the help of the market system, and their public needs with the help of the political process. Goods and services are classified in various ways. Samuelson divided goods into two groups: public goods and private goods. Public goods are non-market goods and services provided through public production. These are goods created through collective selection, paid in bulk, and provided free (or below cost) to buyers. In order to evaluate health services as public goods, we can divide them into two groups. The first group includes preventive and preventive health services; We can include curative health services in the second group. Since preventive and preventive health services prevent external costs, their benefits are spread not only to those who benefit from the service, but also to all individuals. Therapeutic health services, on the other hand, have high benefits for the individual as well as social benefits. Since these two health groups increase the health level of individuals and society, they will have a positive contribution to labor productivity. As a result of the increase in productivity, it will reflect positively on the national income of the country. In this study, first of all, the concepts, classification and characteristics of public goods and health services will be explained; Then, the evaluation of health services in terms of public goods will be made.