Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Market-Based Health Care: All Myth, No Reality

Market-Based Health Care defines for students the challenges, arguments and politics behind the concept of consumer-driven health care including what it would look like if the business sector would do a better job of organizing our health care arrangements and remove any governmental components built into the system. As a sociologist interested in health care, Budrys focuses on the impact our health care arrangements have on not just an economic level but how they affect people as well. This is an overwhelmingly complex topic and debate and one that is discussed widely in the classroom. This will be the first text to clearly present the market-based health care model and how doctors, medical insurance and "big pharma" play a role in its development. Review In her well-argued book Budrys (emer., DePaul Univ.) reviews the market-based theory of health care, contrasting myth with reality to make the case that for a health care industry to be completely market-driven is an unrealistic goal. She observes that while the consumers of health care are essentially patients, fulfilling such a role is fundamentally different than purchasing a good or service in a free-market economy, where lowest price trumps all. In actuality, federal and state governments are the crucial purchasers of health care, and without this source of demand, private-sector organizations would have minimal interest in addressing a competitive market. In other words, the market would diminish. The text first reviews the market-based model, then looks at each of the major industry sectors, from doctors and insurance companies to hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and occupations, examining how the drive toward "consumer-driven" health care influences their actions relative to the patients they are supposed to serve. By showing how critical government support is to the health care organizations that operate in the private sector, Budrys ably challenges the idea that a market-based approach will solve the problems that plague the industry. This book is well worth the read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.--CHOICE Market-Based Health Care engages the critical question of the role of private markets in health care from positive and normative perspectives and offers substantial engagement with important issues of fairness, choice, and universal access. The combination of health institutions, economic theory, and real-world critiques of economic theory is a useful and clear way to approach this important topic.--Michael Ash, University of Massachusetts, Amherst About the Author Grace Budrys is professor emerita at DePaul University. She consults closely with government and non-profit health care related organizations on the topic of market based health care. She is still active in academic research and is considered one of the fields leading medical sociologists. She chaired the committee that created the Master of Public Health program and served as director for the Public Services Master Program, and was a professor in the Department of Sociology. Her books include Unequal Health: How Inequality Contributes to Health or Illness and How Nonprofits Work: Case Studies in Nonprofit Organizations.