Power Search
Low Price Guarantee
We Take School POs
Please login or create a free account to submit a review

Doctors and the State: The Politics of Health Care in France and the United States
Contributor(s): Wilsford, David (Author)

View larger image

 ISBN: 0822310821     ISBN-13: 9780822310822
Publisher: Duke University Press
OUR PRICE: $31.30  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: March 1991
Qty:

Click for more in this series: Duke Press Policy Studies
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Medical | Health Care Delivery
Dewey: 362.1
LCCN: 90013995
Series: Duke Press Policy Studies
Physical Information: 0.78" H x 6" W x 9" L (1.11 lbs) 376 pages
Features: Bibliography, Illustrated, Index
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
All advanced health care systems face severe difficulties in financing the delivery of today's sophisticated medical care. In this study David Wilsford compares the health systems in France and the United States to demonstrate that some political systems are considerably more effective at controlling the cost of care than others. He argues that two variables-the autonomy of the state and the strength and cohesiveness of organized medicine-explain this variance.
In France, Wilsford shows, the state is strong in the health policy domain, while organized medicine is weak and divided. Consequently, physicians exercise little influence over health care policymaking. By contrast, in the United States the state is weak, the employers and insurers who pay for health care are fragmented, and organized medicine is strong and well financed. As a result, medical professionals are able to exert a greater influence on policymaking, thus making cost control more difficult.
Wilsford extends his comparison to health care systems in the United Kingdom, West Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan. Whether the private or public sector finances health care, he discovers, there is now an important trend in all of the advanced industrial countries toward controlling escalating costs by curbing both the medical profession's clinical autonomy and physicians' incomes.
 
Customer ReviewsSubmit your own review
 
To tell a friend about this book, you must Sign In First!