6. INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON CONTEMPORARY SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
HEALTH CARE AS A CREDENCE GOOD
Yazarlar:
Sıtkıcan SARACOGLU
Credence goods are goods or services with which an expert has more information about quality and quantity than consumers. Because of the unfamiliarity with the characteristics of these goods, consumers may not make accurate decisions about what they really need, or after the consumption they may not accurately evaluate whether the suggested quality was really provided. Hence, credence goods lead to asymmetric information between consumers (recipients) and producers (providers). Asymmetric information occurs in health care markets since doctors generally have an informational advantage compared to patients. Patients are not able to know which disease they suffer from and which type of health care is the best treatment for their disease, while doctors can diagnose patients and decide the appropriate health care. Thus, patients have to trust doctors to advise and provide the appropriate health care. In addition, patients generally are not able to evaluate whether the treatment was appropriate or whether cheaper health care might have treated the same disease. Hence, health care is generally defined as a credence good. This study aims first, to describe features of credence goods and second, to clarify the definition of health care as a credence good and the problems which stem from it.
