Can a Health Care Market Be Moral?: A Catholic Vision / Edition 2

Can a Health Care Market Be Moral?: A Catholic Vision / Edition 2

by Mary J. McDonough
ISBN-10:
1589011570
ISBN-13:
9781589011571
Pub. Date:
06/08/2007
Publisher:
Georgetown University Press
ISBN-10:
1589011570
ISBN-13:
9781589011571
Pub. Date:
06/08/2007
Publisher:
Georgetown University Press
Can a Health Care Market Be Moral?: A Catholic Vision / Edition 2

Can a Health Care Market Be Moral?: A Catholic Vision / Edition 2

by Mary J. McDonough
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Overview

Since the 1970s health care costs in the United States have doubled, insurance premiums have far outpaced inflation, and the numbers of the uninsured and underinsured are increasing at an alarming rate. At the same time the public expects better health care and access to the latest treatment technologies. Governments, desperate to contain ballooning costs, often see a market-based approach to health care as the solution; critics of market systems argue that government regulation is necessary to secure accessible care for all.

The Catholic Church generally questions the market's ability to satisfy the many human needs intrinsic to any care delivery system yet, although the Church views health care as a basic human right, it has yet to offer strategies for how such a right can be guaranteed. Mary J. McDonough, a former Legal Aid lawyer for medical cases, understands the advantages and disadvantages of market-based care and offers insight and solutions in Can a Health Care Market Be Moral?

Drawing on Catholic social teachings from St. Augustine to Pope John Paul II, McDonough reviews health system successes and failures from around the world and assesses market approaches to health care as proposed by leading economists such as Milton Friedman, Regina Herzlinger, Mark Pauly, and Alain Enthoven. Balancing aspects of these proposals with Daniel Callahan's value-dimension approach, McDonough offers a Catholic vision of health care in the United States that allows for some market mechanisms while promoting justice and concern for the least advantaged.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781589011571
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Publication date: 06/08/2007
Edition description: REV Large Print
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 6.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Mary J. McDonough has worked as an advocate for Montana Legal Services and served as a member of the Montana State House of Representatives. She received her PhD from the Graduate Theological Union and has taught as an adjunct professor of ethics at Rocky Mountain College.

Table of Contents

IntroductionJustice and the Catholic Church Capitalism, Health Care, and Catholic Social ThoughtEconomic Theory, Market Mechanisms, and Health CareTwo Approaches to Health CareCatholic Values and Health CarePlan of the BookNotes

Chapter 1Justice in Catholic Social Thought Augustine and AquinasThe Influence of Rerum novarumThe Contribution of Quadragesimo annoPius XII and Human Dignity Encyclicals of John XXIIIThe Second Vatican Council and Gaudium et spesThe Catholic Social Teaching of Paul VIThe U.S. Catholic Bishops and Economic Justice for All John Paul II: Culture and MercyConclusion: What is Justice? Notes

Chapter 2Catholic Social Thought on Capitalism and Health CareCapitalism and the Catholic ChurchCatholic Social Thought and Health CareConclusion: Justice, Capitalism, and Health CareNotes

Chapter 3Health Care Economic Theory, Market Mechanisms, and Health Outcomes A Short History of Medicine and the MarketTraditional Market Economic TheoryHealth Care Economics: The DebateMarket MechanismsVarious Countries' Responses to Market Mechanisms and Health OutcomesNotes

Chapter 4The Market Organization Approach to Health Care Milton Friedman: A Market Purist's Cure for Health CareRegina Herzlinger: Consumer-Driven Health CareMark Pauly: Responsible National Health InsuranceAlain Enthoven: Managed CompetitionSummary: The Market Organization ApproachNotes

Chapter 5The Value Dimension Approach to Health Care Daniel Callahan's Critique of the Health Care SystemCallahan's Finite Model of MedicineCatholic Social Thought and Callahan's Finite MedicineNotes

Chapter 6A Catholic Vision of Health Care Towards Universal Health CareThe Underlying Values of Health CareIntegrating Market MechanismsConclusion: Can A Health Care Market Be Moral? Notes

BibliographyIndex

What People are Saying About This

Thomas A. Shannon

McDonough's Can A Health Care Market Be Moral? is a very helpful and critical contribution to the growing analysis of justice and fairness in health care ethics. She provides an excellent review of perspectives of Roman Catholic social justice in relation to understandings of various market models and models of health and health care. McDonough provides an excellent proposal for thinking through how a health care market can be moral. Her book is a welcome addition to a developing field and will help set the direction for future discussions.

Lisa Cahill

This book is a valuable steppingstone from moral calls for health care reform to concrete policy proposals. It will help those informed by Catholic social teaching to think more clearly about this complex and challenging issue.

Richard M. Gula

Catholic social teaching on capitalism and healthcare is the point of departure for this philosophical and theological analysis of models for funding and distributing health care. In clear and accessible writing, McDonough walks us through complex economic theories and models of health care distribution as she tests how well the market organization approaches of Friedman, Herzlinger, Pauly, and Enthoven and the value dimension approach of Callahan satisfy the ethical criteria found in Catholic social teaching. This will be a welcomed book for anyone who believes that the Catholic theological tradition can make a significant contribution to this major issue at the intersection of social ethics, economics, and health care.

From the Publisher

"This book is a valuable steppingstone from moral calls for health care reform to concrete policy proposals. It will help those informed by Catholic social teaching to think more clearly about this complex and challenging issue." -- Lisa Cahill, Boston College

"In an admirably comprehensive and in-depth book, Mary J. McDonough shows how the Catholic insistence on a right to basic health care can be put into practice in a system that is universal, affordable, and sustainable. McDonough convincingly argues that such a system requires both a systematic organization involving the role of government together with some market mechanisms to control costs and a value approach to the meaning of health that sees it as a means and not an end." -- Charles E. Curran, Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values, Southern Methodist University

"McDonough's Can A Health Care Market Be Moral? is a very helpful and critical contribution to the growing analysis of justice and fairness in health care ethics. She provides an excellent review of perspectives of Roman Catholic social justice in relation to understandings of various market models and models of health and health care. McDonough provides an excellent proposal for thinking through how a health care market can be moral. Her book is a welcome addition to a developing field and will help set the direction for future discussions." -- Thomas A. Shannon, professor emeritus of religion and social ethics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

"Catholic social teaching on capitalism and healthcare is the point of departure for this philosophical and theological analysis of models for funding and distributing health care. In clear and accessible writing, McDonough walks us through complex economic theories and models of health care distribution as she tests how well the market organization approaches of Friedman, Herzlinger, Pauly, and Enthoven and the value dimension approach of Callahan satisfy the ethical criteria found in Catholic social teaching. This will be a welcomed book for anyone who believes that the Catholic theological tradition can make a significant contribution to this major issue at the intersection of social ethics, economics, and health care." -- Richard M. Gula, SS, professor of moral theology, Franciscan School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union

Charles E. Curran

In an admirably comprehensive and in-depth book, Mary J. McDonough shows how the Catholic insistence on a right to basic health care can be put into practice in a system that is universal, affordable, and sustainable. McDonough convincingly argues that such a system requires both a systematic organization involving the role of government together with some market mechanisms to control costs and a value approach to the meaning of health that sees it as a means and not an end.

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