The Theory of Demand for Health Insurance. Conventional theory holds that moral hazard -- the additional health care purchased as a result of becoming insured -- is an opportunistic price response and is welfare-decreasing because the value of the additional health care purchased is less than its costs.
First, the demand for health care is a derived demand arising from the fundamental demand for good health that is required for consumption and investment purposes (Grossman, 1972 ). Hence, health care is an input in an individual\'s health production function.
“The neoclassical economic theory of rational consumer and constrained utility maximization is the cornerstone of modern health care demand analysis. In this paradigm, people are assumed to drive utility directly from the health obtained from medical services.
Demand theory is an economic principle relating to the relationship between consumer demand for goods and services and their prices in the market. Demand theory forms the basis for the demand...