Supply and Demand in Health Care - Term Paper Example

?Supply and Demand in Health Care Plastic surgery is one of the medical services whose needs have been increasing over the years. It is also referred to as cosmetic surgery because in most cases, surgery is not done to cure a disease or a life threatening condition but for aesthetic purposes. However, cosmetic surgery can be done on people who have severe physical disabilities or were involved in accidents or fires that disfigured their faces or bodies in one way or another. This is usually referred to as corrective cosmetic surgery because its purpose is to restore to normal an abnormality on the physical appearance of the human body. As people get old, their physical bodies degenerate and people lose the beauty that they had when younger as they grow older. However, people do not like getting old and the fact that this shows on their faces and bodies makes it even worse. People yearn for the energy and beauty of the youth, hence their desire for plastic surgery to continue looking younger even in their old ages. Cosmetic surgery can be done on any part of the body, but the most common include the face, nose, lips, arms, abdomen, female breasts, forehead, and upper parts of the legs. These are usually enhanced in order to make them tighter for the limbs and face, fuller for the lips, smaller for the nose, bigger for breasts and firmer for the abdomen. All these procedures are conducted on people of different ages, races and sex as people try to conform to the modern definition of beauty and functionality, which has set standards for each part of the body. The results and consequences of such procedures are not necessarily appreciated by every person. Many of the people that have undergone plastic surgery are celebrities like actors, actresses, musicians, socialites and other people in the media who have images to maintain. Many have gone the plastic surgery way in order to maintain their looks, hence their images, which act as one of their best selling assets. Modern methods of plastic surgery have been performed on people since the First World War when reconstructive surgery was performed on injured soldiers to restore their wounded bodies and resume functionality. However, the science of cosmetic surgery dates back several centuries before in 800 BC where it was first performed in India by Sushruta, who is referred to as the father of plastic surgery (Gullette, 2011). Despite its being around for period longer than many medical procedures or even drugs like penicillin, cosmetic surgery is one of the most expensive medical procedures in the world. One reason for their phenomenal cost includes the fact that people are willing to pay anything to remain young because of the absence of a drug that reverse the aging process that has been discovered yet, hence plastic surgery being the closest people can get to doing this. Other reasons for the high costs include the fact that the surgery is not a necessity but could be deemed a luxury, the need for special equipment to perform it and the scarcity of plastic surgeons that are very good at their work. People travel for thousands of miles from their countries to travel to clinics that specialize in plastic surgery, if only to maintain young looks (Gullette, 2011). The costs of cosmetic surgery are so prohibitive that normal people cannot access the services. Many people, probably out of vanity, have accrued huge amounts of debt by borrowing in order to undergo plastic surgery. This does not make sense financially because the procedure is more of a luxury than a necessity. The costs of undergoing plastic surgery also vary with the country in which the procedure is done, the part of the body undergoing the procedure, the complexity of the procedure and the reputation of the institution or plastic surgeon doing the procedure. The more complex a procedure is, the bigger the part of the body to cover and the more famous a plastic surgeon is, the higher the costs of undergoing plastic surgery. Here in the USA, the highest numbers of plastic surgery procedures are breast enlargements, liposuctions, enhancement of lips, abdominal surgeries, and eyelid procedures for aesthetic purposes. Although the majority of the people undergoing these plastic surgeries are Caucasians, more and more people of other races are choosing these procedures as well. Other non-surgical forms of beauty enhancements involve the use of Botox and use of laser beams to do procedures on the eyes and other parts of the body. Because of its high costs, plastic surgery remains out of reach for many people. Accessing these services means that one has to be very rich, and this is usually a very small percentage of the general population. This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that most insurance companies will not cover cosmetic procedures unless they are reconstructive surgeries on injuries got by people while still covered by them. The work of plastic surgeons is becoming even more specialized, and this makes it even more difficult to access their services (Alsarraf et al., 2001). Furthermore, public ignorance of some of the procedures carried out by plastic surgeons makes it more difficult for people to access them. Plastic surgeons have also found it difficult to access clients because of the public perception of their work as being exclusive, as well as not having a forum to post their works and publish their findings. However, this has recently changed due to the internet. This has provided a platform for plastic surgeons to reach a wider audience and publish their works online. However, a challenge is still there for people to actually access plastic surgery services because of their costs. The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, AACS, has also been active in pushing for the agendas of plastic surgeons, finding ways to make the services of cosmetic surgery accessible to more people and publishing the American Journal of cosmetic Surgery, both on print and online (Petro, 2011). The availability of some beauty enhancement products like Botox in pharmacies at cheaper prices has also made plastic surgery more accessible to people with less money and time to spend on the more complex and costly procedures. They have made progress on these fronts, but more needs to be done if more people all over the USA and beyond are to benefit from the services of plastic surgeons. The market for plastic surgery will always be there, as there are more people willing to undergo the procedure than there are people who are able to pay for it. However, as more and more people look for ways to finance their cosmetic surgery procedures, this trend keeps on changing and more people undergo plastic surgery financed by whichever means. This means that as the demand for plastic surgery increases, the prices go up and this will lead to an increase of medical practitioners specializing in the trade. At the present time, the few available reputable plastic surgeons usually have their hands tied and people undergoing the procedures have to book their surgeries several weeks, or even months in advance. This has led to the increase in prices of even the most basic plastic surgery procedures. Pharmaceutical companies have also been cashing in on this trend by producing more over-the-counter drugs like Botox that can be accessed by consumers without the need for prescriptions from doctors. The supply of plastic surgery services is therefore steady and increasing as more people get into the business of trying to make people stay young forever through medical procedures, as well as through products, driven by the increasing demand for these services and products. Plastic surgery as a medical procedure has its own advantages and disadvantages. Its shortcomings include the dangers one faces while undergoing medical surgeries because some procedures require the use of anesthesia and surgical procedures to be used, the expenses involved and the unnaturalness involved with trying to alter one’s body’s features. However, many people find plastic surgery fulfilling and satisfactory. The utility these people derive from the plastic surgery procedures is high enough to justify the high costs that they pay to access these services. As people get more money in the future and as more people feel the need to undergo plastic surgery to enhance their beauty, the need for cosmetic surgery will increase, hence the supply for these services. References Alsarraf, R. et al. (2001). Cost outcomes of facial plastic surgery: regional and temporal trends. Arch Facial Plast Surg. 3, 44-47. Gullette, M. M. (2011). Agewise: fighting the new ageism in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Petro, J. A. (2011). Science: The Experimental Method and Surgery. American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery, 28 (4): 201-203. Read More