Question

describe how need and demand measures are used in policy process

Answer 1

The planning phase of the policy process is driven by measures like demand and need. The planning of policy should be need-based and demand driven. The policy planning must meet the demand of healthcare in the community. The users can be involved in the policy planning process based on the needs and demands.

According to Mowery and Rosenberg (1979), demand is the people’s readiness to pay for the satisfaction of the needs. Demand is the willingness and ability to satisfy the needs and able to buy it. Demand is always influenced by affordability.

In simple words, need can be considered as a necessity. It indicates the thing that is essential to survive or to sustain. The needs are classified by Maslow as different levels. The basic levels are essential to survive like food, water, shelter etc. Health needs for policy development can are often measured using many methods like self-report, health status indicators, biomedical measures of health status, geographic variations.

In order to develop an effective policy, the demand and need measures have to be considered. The policy developed based on the need and demand of the community can have a positive impact on it.