Deck 15: Economic Issues

Question 1

Managed care gives rise to ethical problems associated with balancing utilitarian views of cost-effective care with a respect for persons and the traditional view of a duty to care. Which of the following statements are considerations for managed care organizations? Select all that apply.

A) Relationships are not critical in the delivery of health services.
B) Health plans, purchasers, clinicians, and the public share responsibility for the appropriate stewardship of health care resources.
C) Patients do not need to be well informed about the financial benefit issues that affect the provision of care.
D) All parties should foster an ethical environment for the delivery of effective and efficient quality health care.
E) Patients should be well informed about care and treatment options.

Answer 1

Health plans, purchasers, clinicians, and the public share responsibility for the appropriate stewardship of health care resources.
All parties should foster an ethical environment for the delivery of effective and efficient quality health care.
Patients should be well informed about care and treatment options.

Question 2

Three patients arrive at the free clinic in need of the same medication, but there is only enough in stock for one person. The nurse in charge of the clinic asks herself, "Who needs this medicine most?" This question suggests which of the following?

A) The nurse is utilizing a material rule of distributive justice to make her decision.
B) Decisions about how to distribute scarce medications are capricious.
C) The nurse should collaborate with the clinic physician when she makes this type of decision.
D) There are no rules regulating distribution of scarce medications in this facility.

Answer 2

The nurse is utilizing a material rule of distributive justice to make her decision.

Question 3

Which of the following ethical theories of justice are based upon the rule that it is good to maximize the greatest good for the greatest number of people?

A) Libertarian theories
B) Utilitarian theories
C) Deontological theories
D) Communitarian theories

Answer 3

Utilitarian theories

Question 4

Which of the following health care financing systems has a strong focus on the principle of autonomy?

A) Fee for service
B) Managed care
C) Universal health insurance
D) Single payer systems

Question 5

Which of the following statements about managed care are true? Select all that apply.

A) It attempts to control costs by modifying the behavior of providers and patients.
B) It is a system that is based on patient and provider autonomy.
C) It lowers cost through the elimination of waste and excess.
D) It aims toward lower premiums and preventive care benefits.
E) It is attentive to the needs of the membership group and individual patients.

Question 6

Different methods of paying for health care in the United States seek to provide superior care, equality of access, and freedom of choice for all citizens, while promoting the public interest through cost-containment programs. Citizens discuss the ideal of equal access to health care for everyone, including care for indigents. Yet, segments of the health care system maintain aspects of a free-market competition. Which of the following statements best describes this system?

A) Utilitarian theory is the sole basis for U.S. health care financing, forming the foundation of Medicare, Medicaid, and privately purchased health care insurance.
B) Libertarianism, which espouses a free market system and freedom of choice, undergirds the basic principles of U.S. health care financing.
C) Several theories of justice try to achieve a balance between competing social goals in the U.S. health care system.
D) Most health care financing occurs at the community level; therefore communitarian principles are most applicable to U.S. health care economics.

Question 7

In Canada, almost all people are insured against the cost of all hospital and physician expenses through a government health insurance program. This type of health care financing is commonly called:

A) fee for service.
B) managed care.
C) universal health insurance.
D) voluntary or private insurance.

Question 8

John Rawles suggested that in making decisions of distributive justice, one should examine the situation behind a "veil of ignorance" so that no one would be able to design principles to favor his or her particular condition. This idea supports which of the following economic theories for which Rawles was a proponent?

A) Utilitarianism
B) Communitarianism
C) Egalitarianism
D) Libertarianism

Question 9

Which of the following is a natural consequence of utilitarian forms of health care financing?

A) Resources and services will be distributed equally.
B) Some people will not receive resources and services.
C) Those people with the greatest need receive the bulk of resources and services.
D) People who have greater personal resources will receive greater benefit.

Question 10

Which of the following best describes the connection between ethics and health care financing?

A) Health care financing is an outcome of social morality and collective beliefs about distribution of health care services in terms of good versus bad, right versus wrong, and harm versus benefit.
B) Codes of ethics mandate that professionals in each discipline contribute to society through participation in health care policy.
C) Health care professionals' duties center on the individual patient, and health care financing directly impacts each person's ability to receive care.
D) Health care financing rests upon the ethical principles of distributive justice, beneficence, and nonmaleficence.

Question 11

The economics of Country A support the rights of property and liberty for each person and allow each citizen to improve life circumstances by his or her own effort. Health care can be purchased or given freely in Country A, but there is no entitlement program to ensure basic health care to vulnerable people. This type of economic structure best describes which of the following?

A) Marxism
B) Communitarianism
C) Democracy
D) Libertarianism

Question 12

Examples of health care cost containment in the 1980s included:

A) a payment system based on Diagnosis related groups (DRGs).
B) certificate of need programs.
C) Professional standards review organizations (PSROs).
D) Peer review organizations (PROs).
E) all of the above.

Question 13

Which of the following ethical theories place the community, rather than the individual, the state, the nation, or any other entity, at the center of the value system?

A) Libertarian theories
B) Deontological theories
C) Utilitarian theories
D) Communitarian theories

Question 14

The traditional health care system in the United States is:

A) managed care.
B) fee-for-service.
C) universal health insurance.
D) single payer systems.

Question 15

A "health care system which attempts clinically and financially to control primary health care services in a medical group practice through elimination of redundant facilities and services for the purpose of reducing costs" describes which of the following health care financing systems?

A) Fee for service
B) Universal health care
C) Categorical financing
D) Managed care