Masks, © Joseph Scott Gladstone, 2020
When you look at Shi and Singh's Essentials of the U.S. Health Care System (5th Edition, 2019), you will find a great deal of discussion about medical technology and its influence on health care delivery and quality. However, as we are learning during the Covid pandemic, technology is useless if we don't have enough of it available, and while we think about technology as high-tech, it turns out the most simple piece of equipment is hard to find.
Shi and Singh describe med tech as "the practical application of scientific knowledge to improve people's health and to create efficiencies in the delivery of medical care" (p. 103). This article will focus on efficiencies. More important, this article will present a very important topic not discussed by Shi and Singh: logistics. Logistics is the process of getting materials, and then moving them from Point A to Point B. For example, finding a face mask supplier, and then making arrangements with that supplier to make those masks for an agreed price.
As is common in all the articles in this Covid lectures, leadership is important to include in this article.
As you listen to the news, you will read and/or hear that federal leadership has surrendered to the States its role in pandemic intervention, notably in providing resources States need to treat patients and protect health care workers. What are the States left to do when there is no federal support? They seek resources on their own.
Leaving States to find their own resources forces States to enter "the market" to purchase resources. While pure market capitalists see this as the perfect way to deliver resources to citizens since in their belief the market is guided by an "invisible hand" compete against each other for limited resources. The invisible hand theory assumes that producers benefit society as they produce and sell goods simply in order to satisfy their own desires for profit. However, in their selfish desire for profit, they benefit society by providing goods that society wants.
Market capitalists also assume that "the market", that is we the consumers, set prices by refusing to buy items above the price we are willing to buy them for. Additionally, the market sets prices by competition. That is, while I am only willing to pay five dollars for an item, a producer can sell that item to somebody willing to pay six dollars for it. In theory it's a win-win since the person gets the item for what they can afford, six dollars, while the producer gains additional profit.
While the invisible hand market model might work for some goods at some times, it's a horrible model when there is a pandemic and people need ventilators and health care workers need protective gear such as face masks.
NPR's Planet Money podcast explains this well: Episode 992: The Mask Mover.
