Health Economics, Policy and Law - Essay Example

 Health Economics, Policy and Law Question One Being critical and exceptionally important aspects in life, the influence of economics, legal considerations in the health policy process and politics have been critically highlighted in the international trends. Health economics, policy and law can effectively help one to have advanced studies through scholarships on related fields. In addition, these areas are vital in policy making and useful to academicians and health care managers. As an international aspect in scope, HEPL aids in publishing both theoretical and practical or applied work. Moreover, it comprises articles on which all health policy aspects are highlighted and clarified. The field imposes significant emphasis on rigorous conceptual development and analysis (Thomas p. 217 232). Further, it significantly emphasizes on empirical evidence presentation that is particularly relevant to the policy process. In this paper, I seek to critically analyze the aspects of economics of policy and law, while assessing its regulatory intervention in ensuring food safety in Canada, as well as protecting Canada’s public health. This study will basically be done in connection to the obligations of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) whose priority is to maintain food supply safety. In so doing, the paper will analyze all relevant concepts of economics of law and policy, including externality, market failure, and government failure (Gillian et all p. 131-169). Law and economics are foundational to any production. Basically, we have positive and normative law and economics which highly govern production. Positive law and economics use economic analysis to predict the effects of various legal rules. For instance, the analysis of the law of tort would predict the results of the strict liability rule contrary to the results of a negligence rule. On the other hand, normative and economics use economic analysis to make policy recommendations based on the economic results of various policies, the key concept for normative economic analysis being efficiency. In every dimension, standardization of consumption foods is very essential to human life. In other words, it is important that before chemical foods are distributed to people for consumption first they must undergo inspection to be proven that they are harmless for use. The companies that do produce such chemical foods must meet all the set standards and policies irrespective of whether they will not benefit from the products or not since it is the good health of people that will enable the business to progress. Accordingly, CFIA is in place to ensure that these foods produced by such plants are safe for human health. The agency is very much interested in finding out whether the foods produced by such companies are free from E. coli 0157: H7 which is very harmful to human health. The CFIA inspects both domestic and imported foods, which include dairy, eggs, meat, poultry, processed fruits and vegetables, for chemical residues and metals. At initial stages, it was found out that the companies producing meat products were meeting the actions set by the agency, but later it was found to be contrary to the expectations of the agency. As a result this led to the agency suspending of the license till the company has taken adequate steps to deal with the issues and to work to agreed upon corrective actions. This was after CFIA noting deviations from the company’s documented E. coli 0157: H7 control measures and sampling and testing procedures. The common concept of efficiency used by law and economics is a legal rule called Pareto efficiency, (Coase 3-14). It is fundamental that the economic analysis captures the importance of human rights, especially right to life and concerns for distributive justice in dealing with any business. The company had to adopt the law framework in inspection of its products before supplying them to the public to avoid controversies and questions in the productions of its foods. As an inspector oversight, CFIA has real helped to protect Americans from fatal foods. The agency keeps on watching and inspecting foods that enter the market produced within America or imported and at the same time inform the public about the effectiveness of the foods. In fact, it is a watchdog of inspection of foods in the market. It warns the public, the distributors and the food service establishments not to consume, sell or serve the products because they may be contaminated with E. coli 0157: H7 which is fatal to people. For instance, it gave out the list covering the items connected to the XL Foods slaughterhouse in Brooks and Alta that should be avoided for the sake of their life. Information obtained enables the Canadian Food International Agency to identify violations and trends as well as to gauge the effectiveness of the policies and programs so as to develop strategic plans towards minimizing the health risks for all Canadians. The CFIA inspection help keep the food safety system strong for Canadian families (Medema et all 418-455). Companies on the other hand, are major parties that contribute in generating the government revenue. Despite the fact that these companies produce foods with chemicals and metals which are harmful to human health, the government is not committed to ensuring that such foods are safe for consumption. The citizens have quite high expectations from the government to protect them from being poisoned by either domestic or imported foods through inspection and standardization of such foods before distribution to consumers for use. This is contrary because it is only one arm, CFIA, that is committed to protecting peoples’ lives rather than we expect the government to be involved in the safety of its citizen. The government has real failed to impose regulations and take actions against such companies to effectively deal with the catastrophe of the E. coli 0157: H7, (Coase p. 13-21). The ministries involved in health, transport and industry, and affairs of the citizens need to wake up to deal with this issue. For this one to be effected, rules need to be promulgated, imposed and complied with by food processing companies. In any case, the stipulated laws of governance on foods will control and guide such companies to process foods to such standards that they can be consumed without having any side effect. Strict actions should be taken against those who will be involved in breaking of the set rules of governance. The government can be able to do this by setting up research centers, training people in production of quality foods and processing as well as setting up inspection organizations as key inspectors of any food in the market. In addition, the government should set up laboratories majorly for inspection and certify that any kind of food distributed to consumers is free from poisons such E. coli 0157: H7. Through this the citizens will have great confidence in whichever kind food they consume. The government needs to introduce consumer protection policies aimed at protecting the people from consuming harmful substances. Turning on our eyes on to other bodies that standardize products and those that inspect foods need to be highly involved to ensure food safety, (Silvain p. 2-20). Conclusion Economic laws and policies in food production are very fundamental in governing the standards of foods and ensuring safety to people in consumption of food products. The CFIA has real committed itself to highly and effectively support Canadians to consume safe foods. The health laws and policies actually need to be promulgated to guide actions and conduct of any company involved food production. They will basically help Canadians to have health lives by taking right and safe foods. Therefore, it is a call to the government too to wake up and support the CFIA in establishment of such policies aimed at improving quality food products. Question 2: Institutional Laws and Economics in Problem Gambling Gambling is an activity that involves one or two individuals having a goal that is trying to be reached and rules to establish what can and what cannot be done. A person is gambling if he or she takes the chance of losing money or belonging, where winning or losing is basically decided by chance. More precisely, it is a game that involves risking something of value in a contest with an aim of gaining something of value. They are essentially played for enjoyment, curiosity, for quick riches and experimentation. However, this game can be of educational importance too. The game has got its own advantages and disadvantages, but high addiction levels may impact negatively. Institutional economics is an imperative area in the field which verges into social sciences and it focuses on understanding the role of institutions such in shaping economic behavior. Institutional economics stresses a wider and broad study of institutions and views markets as a result of the complex interactions of these institutions such as individuals, firms, social norms and states. The new institutional economics integrates new developments if neoclassical economics into the analysis. Some of the institutionalists such as Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen and John R. Commons explain various issues underlying economics. For instance, John R. Commons consolidated in Institutional Economics (p. 2-3) was the concept that the economy is a web of relationships between individuals who have diverging interests. Commons thought the government ought to be the mediator between conflicting groups and he devoted much of his time to advisory and mediation work on the government and industrial commissions. Gambling in Canada has real affected the lifestyle of people because of its addiction. It has grown at an unprecedented rate over the last decade and it is a famous recreational activity. Once gambling used to be illegal or was viewed negatively, but now social norms have real shifted. In Canada, gambling is a multi-billion dollar industry and it is likely to continue growing because no legal system has been put in place to monitor the industry. Charity, health and initiative funds have been raised from gambling. The public sector also prefers this to increase in direct taxation. Commercial transactions are greatly dependent on and governed by legal by legal forms and rules, while transaction cost approach addresses itself to a wider set of transactions, (Williamson, 56). In his book, Williamson distinguishes between private contracting under conditions of low transaction costs with coordination of individual plans by complete contracts and public intervention or court ordering if the transaction costs of private contracting are prohibitively high. There are many different ways to gamble which include; casino games, scratch tickets, lottery tickets, slot machines, internet gambling and betting on cards. In Ontario and Canada, 63.3% of adults gamble with lottery tickets. The gaming industry in Canada generates more than $14b in revenues. Commercial casinos also generated about $1.7b in 2006. This actually implies that the government too benefits from this game, (Berman 34). There is no strict legal framework or system that is in place to govern the business. The government of Canada is not committed to drafting laws to govern such games. Despite, the fact that gambling has got many negative influences, steps have not been taken by the government towards curbing the problem to safe people who unaware engage in such businesses. Problem gambling is not just about the loss of money, but how it can affect the person’s whole life too. It is a problem when it interferes with work or other activities, leads to emotional or physical health problems, causes financial problems and harms the family or other relationships. Gambling addiction, compulsive gambling, pathological gambling and gambling disorder are terms that are associated with gambling. For instance, in 2005 about 4% of high school students were at risk for a gambling problem. In the same year in Canada, adults experienced severe problems with gambling in which they approximately spent 21% of their personal income on gambling compared to non problem gamblers who approximately spent 1.5%, ( Doucet 24-45).. The normative economic law, that is pareto efficient, wouldn’t help cause the game is biased since one has to lose and the other to gain. Whoever loses is not satisfied that he/she has lost in the game. This urge will not allow him to stay from the game, but to keep on trying until he gains too. At a point this would lead to committing suicide to some individuals due to failure to achieve good results in the game (Simon and Fabio 1-22). People with gambling problems fall into three main categories: the normal problem gamblers, emotionally vulnerable gamblers and biologically based gamblers, (Doucet p. 17-41). Each category has got its own characteristics. There are risk factors that can contribute to the development of gambling problems or make it more difficult to stop from participating in the game. Some of these factors include; having an early big win leading to false expectation of future wins, mistaken beliefs of the odds of winning, having financial problems and not taking steps to monitor gambling wins or losses. Though, the business is good in generating income not only to individuals but also to it is a source of government revenue. Conclusion Institutional laws and economics real are very influential in making and providing legal framework to govern any kind business engaged to by people. For instance, gambling as a game has got a lot in itself such that the government should intervene to ensure safety to its people. This is because there are so many negative effects associated with the gambling. Suicide, criminality, financial problems and job loss are a few to be mentioned. The government should set up economic laws and policies to guide engagement of such businesses. Work Cited Question one References Coase, Ronald. The Firm, the Market, and the Law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (1990). Print. Gillian K. Hadfield et all. Information- Based Principles for Rethinking Consumer ProtectionPolicy. Journal Of Consumer Policy: Consumer Issues in Law, Econmics and Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 21, Springer New York (1998), P. 131-169. Print. Ladouceur, R., Silvain, C. & Doucet, C. Understanding and Treatathological gambler. New York: john Wiley & Sons, Ltd., (2002). Print Steve G. Medema, et all. Institutional Law and Ecnomics. The Journal f Law and Economics: The History and Methodology of Law and Economics. (2000). Vol 1 p. 418-455. Thomas Wilhelmsson. Consumer Law and Social Justice. The Journal of Consumer Law in the Global Economy :National and international Dimensions. (1997), p. 217-232. Print Question Two References Blasczynski, A. Pathways to Pathological Gambling : Identifying Typologies. eGambling: the electronic journal of gambling issues. Blaszczynski, A. Overcoming Compulsive Gambling: A Self-help Guide Using Cognitive Behaioural Techniques. London, England: constable & Robinson, (1998). Berman, L. &Siegel, M. Behind the 8 Ball: A Guide for Families of Gamblers. New York: Simon & Schuster, (1999). Little, D. Losing Mariposa: The Memoir of a Compulsive Gambler. Toronto: ECW Press, (2002). Simon Deakin & Fabio Carvalho. System and Evolution in Corporate Governance. The Journal of European Corporate Governance Institute. (2010). P. 1-22 Read More