Supply and Demand in Health Care Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Supply and Demand in Health Care - Term Paper Example As people get old, their physical bodies degenerate and people lose the beauty that they had when younger as they grow older. However, people do not like getting old and the fact that this shows on their faces and bodies makes it even worse. People yearn for the energy and beauty of the youth, hence their desire for plastic surgery to continue looking younger even in their old ages. Cosmetic surgery can be done on any part of the body, but the most common include the face, nose, lips, arms, abdomen, female breasts, forehead, and upper parts of the legs. These are usually enhanced in order to make them tighter for the limbs and face, fuller for the lips, smaller for the nose, bigger for breasts and firmer for the abdomen. All these procedures are conducted on people of different ages, races and sex as people try to conform to the modern definition of beauty and functionality, which has set standards for each part of the body. The results and consequences of such procedures are not nec essarily appreciated by every person. Many of the people that have undergone plastic surgery are celebrities like actors, actresses, musicians, socialites and other people in the media who have images to maintain. Many have gone the plastic surgery way in order to maintain their looks, hence their images, which act as one of their best selling assets. Modern methods of plastic surgery have been performed on people since the First World War when reconstructive surgery was performed on injured soldiers to restore their wounded bodies and resume functionality. However, the science of cosmetic surgery dates back several centuries before in 800 BC where it was first performed in India by Sushruta, who is referred to as the father of plastic surgery (Gullette, 2011). Despite its being around for period longer than many medical procedures or even drugs like penicillin, cosmetic surgery is one of the most expensive medical procedures in the world. One reason for their phenomenal cost includ es the fact that people are willing to pay anything to remain young because of the absence of a drug that reverse the aging process that has been discovered yet, hence plastic surgery being the closest people can get to doing this. Other reasons for the high costs include the fact that the surgery is not a necessity but could be deemed a luxury, the need for special equipment to perform it and the scarcity of plastic surgeons that are very good at their work. People travel for thousands of miles from their countries to travel to clinics that specialize in plastic surgery, if only to maintain young looks (Gullette, 2011). The costs of cosmetic surgery are so prohibitive that normal people cannot access the services. Many people, probably out of vanity, have accrued huge amounts of debt by borrowing in order to undergo plastic surgery. This does not make sense financially because the procedure is more of a luxury than a necessity. The costs of undergoing plastic surger