DHS 2023 H2EC Prelims Paper 1 Answers (for sharing)

1 H2 Economics Prelims CSQ 1 (a) Would public health programmes to track diseas e outbreaks and set safety standards be considered as public goods? Justify your answer. [4] Yes, because these two programmes are meant to ‘promote and protects the health of all people and their communities’, ‘preve nt people from getting sick or injured in the first place’ and ‘focuses on entire populations’ (extract1). To be specific they are non-excludable, non-rivalrous and non-rejectable in nature. [1] Safety standards and the tracking system are non-excludable . Producers are either unable to or find it is prohibitively costly to exclude non-payers from enjoying the benefits of the safety standards or the trackin g system once they are produced. For example, infection control measures, such as hand hygiene, isolation precautions, environmental cleaning, and medication safety, are designed to be applied uniformly to all patients wi thin a healthcare facility to protect all patients from potential harm. Disease outbreak tracking are designed to benefit an entire population or community. Once in place, typically applied universally to prevent the spread of disease [1] Once safety standards or the tracking system are se t up, it is non-rival in consumption . The consumption of the standards and the system by one person does not reduce the quantity available for others t o consume and benefit from. For example, the development and adherence to safet y protocols for medical procedures do not diminish the benefits for other p atients undergoing similar procedures. The surveillance and reporting of disease cases do not decrease the program's ability to identify and respond to cases in other individuals too. [1] Safety standards and the tracking procedure are als o non-rejectable . Such public health program focuses on promoting and protecting the health of all people and their communities and prevent people from getti ng sick or injured. The collective supply of safety standards and tracking procedure for all, means that it cannot be rejected by the beneficiaries. For example, some safety standards and tracking procedure are mandated by laws and regulat ions and failing to comply can lead to disciplinary actions or legal consequences. [1]

2 (b) Using Figures 1 and 2, describe the main featu res of US healthcare spending per capita, both over time and compared with other countries. [2] From Figure 2,  since growth rate of healthcare spending per capit a had been consistently positive, we can conclude that US healthcare spending per capita has been increasing since 1980s. [1] or  However, since the growth rate had been falling, w e can conclude that the rate of increase in US healthcare spending per capita has fallen over the years. [1] From Fig 1,  US healthcare spending per capita is the highest a mong the countries listed or  US healthcare spending per capita is more than twi ce the amount the rest