ABSTRACT
Healthcare is among the most important concerns that every nation prioritises. Meanwhile, the cost of utilising healthcare services sometimes limits some individuals from accessing quality healthcare. This chapter deliberates on the demand for healthcare services, its prediction, and factors that influence this demand. It also explores the various pricing strategies being used in healthcare services. The demand for healthcare rests on the amount of healthcare purchased by a patient and the way in which the components of care are combined by a physician to produce a given treatment. Elements that affect a patient’s demand for treatments, elements that affect a physician’s use of the components of care and derived demands for the components of care mostly influence the demand for healthcare services. For strategic planning and management purposes, future demand for healthcare services predictions and methodologies are discussed. Numerous pricing strategies exist in the healthcare system; however, much benefit has not been derived from them, especially in developing countries. Generally, very young children, women, older patients, smokers, high income earners, patients with greater comorbidity, among others, utilise more healthcare resources. Consequently, they incur higher costs of healthcare. Finally, people in poor countries are likely to have less access to healthcare services. Strategies have to be developed by governments and stakeholders to ameliorate these challenges.
