Health economics and healthcare are the two major concepts involved in the working of health system functioning and financial management and relative distribution coverage among different populations. Surging spending, technology breakdowns, and socio-economic gaps have rooted the merit exploration into this relationship from both experiential and theoretical perspectives. This article compiles key studies and new trends to provide a snapshot of the state of knowledge in health care economics today and identifies key areas such as expenditure projections, questions of inequity, technological change, and new research frontiers. The continuous progression in health economics is the increasing healthcare expenditure, particularly compared to national income. For example, taking US projections for national healthcare spending from the year 2024 to 2033 shows 5.8% of annual growth onaverage, while at a slower pace the GDP is expected to increase at 4.3%. This imbalance is challenging to disregard without elevating the concerns about availability and fiscal stability. The declining rates of insurance extent and changing trends of healthcare use are particularly focused on by the government, while many advanced economies are also surely dealing with comparable challenges. For example, a multi-year evaluation of Italy's universal health insurance system shows that inequities result despite delivering comprehensive coverage. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) indicated that higher-income households’ expenditure on healthcare was €300 higher than lower-income congregates, despite controlling for their health needs. From this data, it appears that socio-economic status is a major variable in the ability to procure higher-quality or more expeditious care, potentially diminishing the equity principle that is designed into universal coverage.

In the UK, the economic costs of obesity have been estimated at £126 billion each year, including direct healthcare costs, productivity reductions, and informal care. If we do not strengthen the approaches to tackling obesity, this could increase to £150 billion by 2035 (Public Health England, 2025). These instances emphasize how chronic conditions and diseases associated with lifestyle will affect health systems over the long term. As costs increase, they can pose challenges, but research shows that effective health policies can also provide large health and fiscal benefits.

One study of the 1965 introduction of Medicare found that hospital expenditures increased markedly in the three years following implementation. The Medicare program was associated with accelerated uptake of new medical technologies, providing evidence that large administrative health programs affect the quality of individual access to healthcare and directed the path of medical innovation. These conclusions reaffirm the perspective that public health financing has a transformative capacity that extends beyond simple redistribution, as these systems have evolved through complex structural change. Health economics has placed greater emphasis on access and outcomes disparities. using India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019–20), describes systematic gender inequity:Women reported almost twice the rates of morbidity as men. Insurance status, caste, wealth, marital status, and residing in urban areas were significant explanatory factors for how treatment was accessed and patterns of treatment. These trajectory shifts demonstrate how structural determinants interacted with health systems to create different related health systems.

It's necessary to perceive that inequalities aren't just some problems for low- and middle-income countries. Across wealthier nations, like Italy and the USA, we see considerable disparities tied to many factors like gender, income, and geography. Even with advancements in formal coverage, the problem of unequal access and financial strain persists as the top priority.

It is possible to therefore say that health economics can help show some of the hidden inequities in an otherwise universal system. We are facing a greater, more complex healthcare system, and as such, we must move to more sophisticated methodologies. The recent development of Bayesian additive regression trees (BART) provides a potential solution to modelling costs and health simultaneously. BART will provide a better way of joint estimation, lowering the dependence on costly estimates and increasing the comprehensibility of cost-effectiveness evidence, thus providing richer evidence for resource allocation to decision-makers. The technological revolution, in particular with data science and artificial intelligence (AI), is fundamentally transforming health economics at a fast pace. Through the ISPOR Working Group, we propose a taxonomy for the use of generative AI for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR). Some of the key areas include (1) automating literature reviews, (2) generating real-world evidence, (3) economic modelling, and (4) dossier preparation. If used effectively, AI could improve efficiencies in production and increase scale, although issues regarding interpretability, bias, reliability, and workflow will still need to be written and acknowledged.

Investigating these risks further by examining the economic impacts of bias in AI-assisted emergency response systems. The findings indicate that algorithm bias can cause distortion in the allocation of resources, deteriorate welfare, and increase total costs. This proposes a number of potential mitigation strategies based on fairness-constrained optimization as ethical paradigms for when AI becomes more deeply embedded in health economics. Health economics has substantially grown over the last 30 years as a distinct discipline. Likewise, a document analysis published by Zwack, Haghani, and de Bekker-Grob (2024) shows an increase in publication output and topical breadth across specialty journals. In particular, cost-effectiveness analysis has become increasingly important as health systems have to grapple with limited budgets and unlimited technological potential.

The global market for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) services is reflective of this growth, as it is expected to expand from USD 1.41 billion in 2025 to way over USD 5 billion by 2034, at a compound annual growth rate of almost 14% (Precedence Research, 2025). Several journals are key outlets for disseminating research. Health economics engages a range of policy issues, from surprise billing to Medicaid expansion. Frontiers in Public Health has a separate health economics section focusing on research finding cost-effectiveness and global disparities. ClinicoEconomics & Outcomes Research and the Journal of Medical Economics are where comprehensive sections for reviews and HEOR-focused papers/articles are published. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) program on the Economics of Health remains an important source of timely working papers on research related to financing, insurance, and welfare implications. The intersection of health care and economics reveals an area that is dynamic and fundamental to evidence-informed policymaking.

The growing volume of health economics and HEOR research output, and the extent to which the market for HEOR services is growing, reinforces the important role of health economics in shaping the future of health systems, which, as discussed here and by others, are global in nature. Overall, health care and economics is a highly intertwined field where the intersection between costs, access, equity, and innovation is at play. Future scholarship will have to contemplate the balance between equity and affordability, responsible use of technology in research and practice, and continued advancement of the methodological and empirical boundaries of research that informs evidence-based policy.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a leading force for economic changes in the world from top technology. Its sharp deployment in areas is reshaping productivity trends, reshaping competition, and forcing governments, businesses, and employees to develop dynamic realities. Some areas are quickly emerging, attracting capital and building new values, while others are fighting to develop because automation and generic AI technologies are harassing traditional jobs.

Credit card fraud losses hit $6.2 billion during 2023 because 62 million Americans were affected, and 92% of these incidents occurred without the physical loss of the card. It is projected that card fraud globally will come to a cost of $49 billion each year by 2030 if the current trends continue. The PYMNTS report mentioned that, in previous years, 28% of consumers were considered victims of credit cards. Forbidden access into credit card accounts worries 37% either very or extremely, furthermore.

Online shopping is a wider market; there are so many pros and cons there. From the economic point of view of preference for online shopping, what are the potential drawbacks? The first one is bargaining power—the bargaining power of the buyer is zero; there is no chance for that in online shopping. The term bargaining means the buyer compares the product and prices it at what it's worth for that product.