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- Abstract Healthcare is of most importance to consumers, and analyzing how its price is being fixed and perceived will reveal interesting insights for the literature. In order to respond to the study question: “Is pricing of healthcare in Belgium fair?”, firstly the existing literature on ethics, marketing and pricing basis are analyzed and discussed. The ethics basis is set through four visions: utilitarianism, liberalism, marxism and liberal egalitarianism, and the most relevant ones to the Belgium society, utilitarianism and liberal egalitarianism, are used to reach the conclusions. Literature on ethics in healthcare is also consulted. Marketing concepts are further described, as well as characteristics of healthcare marketing. Moreover, price conception is generally explained and looked into more in details for healthcare pricing. The healthcare organization in Belgium is further explained and detailed, with a focus on main stakeholders. Following the discussion of existing literature, 5 research questions on consumers’ perception of price and their experience are formulated. These research questions are: “Do consumers have enough information on their choices in healthcare?”, “Do consumers perceive the price of healthcare services as important while making a choice?”, “Do consumers really seek for a choice in healthcare?”, “Are consumers satisfied by their healthcare service?” and “Did consumers already felt discriminated because of their presumed purchase power?”. The research questions are answered with the help of hypotheses tested and studied through a quantitative research. In chapter 5, research questions are explained together with the quantitative research’s methodology, sample and the hypotheses tests. The target group is composed out of people having been hospitalized in Belgium, since they are believed to have consumed the largest quantity of healthcare services, and the past decade is set as time limit in order to ensure results are corresponding with the current reality. After the analysis of the survey results, it is concluded that consumers do feel sufficiently informed, that they do not consider the price of healthcare important in their choosing, that they value having a choice in their medical care, that they are satisfied with the service and that they are sometimes discriminated on the basis of their presumed purchase power. Price levels were proven to be unimportant when seeking healthcare, meaning that the second research question is being answered to negatively. Consumers do not perceive pricing of healthcare as being important. However, all consumers of healthcare in Belgium have mutual insurance and a high percentage of them also have additional insurance or hospitalization, which could explain the unimportance of price level. What is more, consumers are satisfied with their service, with both the quality and the quality/price ratio, and they would recommend and return to the facility of their choosing. This confirms that in Belgium the quality of healthcare is highly respected. The satisfaction of consumers could translate into a justified price. Recommendations for further studies formulated include a larger population target, testing the information level of consumers not having been hospitalized and also further looking at the discrimination issue. The healthcare organization in Belgium responds to the definition of utilitarianism and liberal egalitarianism societies as follows: the government lets the healthcare market reach its competitive equilibrium by not fixing all aspects of price and letting the medical fee to an agreement between the stakeholders. Moreover, through the compulsory insurance, the government ensures a minimum level of healthcare to all individuals and, implicitly, attributes healthcare to those who have the smallest amount of it. With the means of the social contribution, every individual in the society contributes to eliminate the negative externality of unforeseen medical needs and thus increase the average welfare.
Citations
Stroea, A. G. (2015). Ethical considerations of pricing of belgian healthcare services. https://dial-mem.test.bib.ucl.ac.be/handle/2078.2/29297