healthcare: supply drives demand?

Alix Spiegel, Social Policy reporter for National Public Radio, has recently put together a radio story on the rise in healthcare procedures and costs in the US (listen here act one, 5min in).

Her 18-minute piece based on research conducted at Dartmouth contends that supply drives demand in the healthcare economy in the US.  In short, the more doctors one finds in a given market, the more (sometimes unnecessary) healthcare procedures conducted.  Healthcare costs then follow suit.

Listening to her interviews, I couldn’t help but think of the environment for healthcare consumption in France.  While most would be uncomfortable calling healthcare a market in the country, consumption is rather easy.  Government regulation has made access to doctors, lab procedures and phramacists simple, especially in densely-populated urban environments you often find in Europe.

What changes between the two continents though, is the communicational environment surrounding the promotion of procedures and medications.  The ‘ask your doctor if it is right for you’ ads in the States, add a new element of pressure to a  consultation and even to the perceived health-based need in the patient’s mind, causing doctors to doubt their abilities.  However, patients should be allowed to access information on drugs, conditions and health threats they may encounter.

At what point do doctors get to make the call?  Can one trust that doctors will always put the patient’s interests in front of their own, especially given an environment of increasing awareness amongst patients?  Are television, magazine and internet ads (aka direct to consumer prescription drug advertising) effective ways of informing the population from a wholistic healthcare perspective?  I’m going to ask my doctor today.

---