| The purpose of this thesis is to display an internal critique of the neoclassical theory of health care consumption with the intention of understanding its true merits and limitations. To avoid arbitrariness, instead of criticizing it directly, this thesis first explores the existing scholarly critiques, as well as the developments of this theory in response to these criticisms. What is interestingly observed is that the neoclassical responses tend to systematically fall into two problematic categories -- the trade-off between reality and theoretical determinacy, and free-market behavior resolution. Such observation suggests that there is something fundamentally problematic with this theory, which is overlooked by the existing critiques. Also, by looking into how consumer behavior is theorized in neoclassical framework, this thesis points out that the fundamental problem of this theory is embedded in the purely subjective and quantitative neoclassical notion of utility, which is the foundation that this theory is built on, as well as the interlocking characteristic of the neoclassical theoretical structure. Ultimately, this thesis argues that such in depth critique points us to a better alternative theoretical framework to analyze the consumption of health care. |
