1. Doctors usually resort to price discrimination by scaling fees to the income of the patients who approach them. Thus the fees charged by the doctors to individual patients are a case of discriminating monopoly in medical profession. This is according as the practice of what the traffic will bear. Doctors tend to justify this policy on the basis of charities. According to Kessel (1985), "if there were mere competition among doctors in the sale of medical services, there would be less discrimination in the pricing of medical services and the charges will be low for the patients". Even though medical practices are currently treated as commercial plus charitable activity, the tendency among the medical practitioners is to adopt a monopolistic competitive market practice rather than discriminating monopoly. Even in certain countries, it has got the features of an oligopoly market.

Questions:

A. If doctors follow a perfectly competitive framework in medical profession, what can be the benefit to the society as whole?

B. Is price discrimination beneficial to the society? How far it can be justified in healthcare industry practices?

C. What features of monopolistic competition are found in the medical industry currently? Explain your assessment based on the country in which you reside.

D. Is the market tend to become more and more monopolistic or oligopolistic? Assess your answer in the light of the modern trends in healthcare industry.

E. In the current scenario, the medical profession has become a purely commercial activity targeting towards profit maximization. Comment.