The Nation's Health Insurance aud Health Services Policies: In Evolution Toward What?

In: American behavioral scientist: ABS, Band 15, Heft 5, S. 713-732

Abstract

The people need a substantially larger volume of scientific medical service than they now receive... There is need for a geographical distribution of practitioners and agencies which more closely approximates the medical requirements of the people.... There needs to be better control over the quality of medical service.... The prevailing methods of purchasing medical care have unsatisfactory consequences. They lead to unwise and undirected expenditures, to unequal and unpredictable financial burdens for the indi vidual and the family, to neglect of health and of illness, to inadequate expenditures for medical care and often to unequal remuneration of practi tioners. There needs to be some plan whereby the unequal and sometimes crushing burden of medical expenses can be distributed... Physical facilities are duplicated between the hospitals and the offices of practitioners and are insufficiently utilized in both.... Misdirected expenditures, competition and excessive specialization among practitioners and the absence o f commun ity planning and of integration of services and facilities contribute to exten sive waste [Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, 1932: 32-34].