Welfare Reform on the Web (November 2002): Healthcare - Overseas
THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
M. Gibelman and H. W. Demone, Jr
Families in Society, vol. 83, 2002, p. 387-397
The mission of non-profit organizations focuses on meeting individual and community needs. The purpose of a for-profit organization is to make money. Even though the commodity offered may be services designed to advance a public interest, the product can be conceptualised as no different from manufacturing widgets. Continued commercialsation of health and human services runs the risk of substituting the goal of profit for that of human well-being.
DOCTORS IN A WIRED WORLD: CAN PROFESSIONALISM SURVIVE CONNECTIVITY?
D. Blumenthal
Milbank Quarterly, vol. 80, 2002, p. 525-546
Access to consumer health information on the Internet will tend to lessen the dependence of patients with non-acute and chronic illnesses on physicians. Doctor's' financial links to some information sources may increase patients' suspicion of professionals. On the other hand, patients may continue to rely on their physicians to analyse, synthesize and evaluate the often conflicting and unreliable information found on the Internet.
HEALTH POLICY IN A GLOBALISING WORLD
K. Lee, K. Buse and S. Fustukian (eds.)
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
This book examines the actors, context, processes and content of health policy in the light of increasing awareness of the impact of globalisation on global health.
UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
H. Berliner
Health Service Journal, vol. 112, Aug. 29th 2002, p. 23
Describes various models under which physicians in the USA are escaping the limitations imposed by managed care by accepting cash payments from patients for personalised attention. This is known as boutique medicine or retainer practice.