Market-Based Health Care

Grace Budrys is professor emerita at DePaul University. She chaired the committee that created the Master of Public Health program, and served as director of the Public Services Master Program. She is actively engaged in research and writing focused on health sector occupations, organizations, and policy. She has consulted with government and nonprofit organizations throughout her academic career. Her books include Unequal Health: How Inequality Contributes to Health or Illness and How Nonprofits Work: Case Studies in Nonprofit Organizations.

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.

• Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 2 The Market-Based Health Care Model 3 The Market for Health Insurance 4 Government Intervention and Health Insurance 5 Doctors 6 Hospitals 7 Pharmaceuticals 8 Health Sector Occupations and Organizations 9 Market-Based Health Care: The Model and the Reality Epilogue: Some Reflections on Solutions BibliographyIndex