Medicine and the Market: Equity v. Choice

by Daniel Callahan, Angela A. Wasunna

Overview

Outstanding Academic Title for 2007, Choice Magazine

Much has been written about medicine and the market in recent years. This book is the first to include an assessment of market influence in both developed and developing countries, and among the very few that have tried to evaluate the actual health and economic impact of market theory and practices in a wide range of national settings.

Tracing the path that market practices have taken from Adam Smith in the eighteenth century into twenty-first-century health care, Daniel Callahan and Angela A. Wasunna add a fresh dimension: they compare the different approaches taken in the market debate by health care economists, conservative market advocates, and liberal supporters of single-payer or government-regulated systems.

In addition to laying out the market-versus-government struggle around the world—from Canada and the United States to Western Europe, Latin America, and many African and Asian countries—they assess the leading market practices, such as competition, physician incentives, and co-payments, for their economic and health efficacy to determine whether they work as advertised.

This timely and necessary book engages new dimensions of a development that has urgent consequences for the delivery of health care worldwide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801888816
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	05/22/2006
Series:	Bioethics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	334
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniel Callahan is the director of International Programs and Angela A. Wasunna is assistant director of International Programs at Pfizer, Inc.

Daniel Callahan is the director of International Programs.
Angela A. Wasunna is the assistant director of international affairs at Pfizer, Inc., and the coauthor of Medicine and the Market, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Of Money, the Market, and Medicine
1. From Adam Smith to HMOs: The Origins of Medicine and the Market
2. A Tale of Two Cultures: Canada and the United States
3. The Endurance of Solidarity: Universal Health Care in Western Europe and Elsewhere
4. The Market in Developing Countries: An Ongoing Experiment
5. The Market Wild Card: Pharmaceuticals
6. The Value of the Market: What Does the Evidence Show?
7. The Future of the Market in Health Care: Undercurrents from the Past, Riptides from the Future
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Thomas Rice

This book provides a great deal of information about a 'hot' topic that heretofore has not been available in a single source.

— Thomas Rice, UCLA School of Public Health

Uwe Reinhardt

In what often is but faith-based policy analysis, free markets have become in the minds of many the next new panacea that will solve our economic and moral health care dilemmas. In this fine book, Daniel Callahan and Angela Wasunna explore the empirical underpinnings of this faith. Without rejecting the potential of market forces in health care outright—which would be another faith-based gesture—they present a thoughtful portrait of the strength and limitations of that approach in the context of health care. Their work is a must read for any would-be health care reformer.

— Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton University

From the Publisher

Internationally informed with extensive cross cultural data, this is a book that didn't merely hold my interest from start to finish—I often found myself excited by it.
—James Nelson, Michigan State University

This book provides a great deal of information about a 'hot' topic that heretofore has not been available in a single source.
—Thomas Rice, UCLA School of Public Health

A thoughtful and penetrating analysis, from an international perspective, of how social values, scientific progress, and public aspirations have shaped the role of the market in medicine and health care. By rising above stereotypes, simple dichotomous choices, and a single concept of 'the market,' this book provides insights into how effective, efficient, affordable, and more equitable health care could be achieved—thus better meeting the goals of medicine locally and globally.
—Solomon Benatar, University of Cape Town

No topic in health care today is more important, and this is the best book on the subject that I have seen. It is scholarly, yet engrossing and easily accessible for the general reader. It will be widely discussed.
—Arnold S. Relman, M.D., Harvard Medical School, former Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine

In what often is but faith-based policy analysis, free markets have become in the minds of many the next new panacea that will solve our economic and moral health care dilemmas. In this fine book, Daniel Callahan and Angela Wasunna explore the empirical underpinnings of this faith. Without rejecting the potential of market forces in health care outright—which would be another faith-based gesture—they present a thoughtful portrait of the strength and limitations of that approach in the context of health care. Their work is a must read for any would-be health care reformer.
—Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton University

Arnold S. Relman

No topic in health care today is more important, and this is the best book on the subject that I have seen. It is scholarly, yet engrossing and easily accessible for the general reader. It will be widely discussed.

— Arnold S. Relman, M.D., Harvard Medical School, former Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine

James Nelson

Internationally informed with extensive cross cultural data, this is a book that didn't merely hold my interest from start to finish—I often found myself excited by it.

— James Nelson, Michigan State University

Solomon Benatar

A thoughtful and penetrating analysis, from an international perspective, of how social values, scientific progress, and public aspirations have shaped the role of the market in medicine and health care. By rising above stereotypes, simple dichotomous choices, and a single concept of 'the market,' this book provides insights into how effective, efficient, affordable, and more equitable health care could be achieved—thus better meeting the goals of medicine locally and globally.

— Solomon Benatar, University of Cape Town

Editorial Reviews

A timely and necessary contribution. Whether or not one agrees with the authors' conclusions, the book is essential reading for anyone concerned with health care reform. It carries out the critical task of placing our national health care debates in the wider context of justice and health care reform around the world.
—Nancy S. Jecker, PhD, JAMA

A detailed analysis of the differences between health care systems in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Latin America, and several countries in Asia and Africa.
—Mary Beth Kenkel, PsycCRITIQUES

Among the many valuable contributions of Medicine and the Market . . . is its potential to motivate a new program of qualitative research into the impact of different health care funding and distribution arrangements, not simply upon our bodies, but also, as it were, upon our souls.
—James Lindemann Nelson, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

[Callahan and Wasunna] convincingly show that, in health care, markets are famous for maximizing choice, not efficiency.
—Peter A. Ubel, Hastings Center Report

A book that deserves to be read by anyone concerned with health systems analysis and health care reform.
—Andreas Reis, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy

The book will interest readers of this journal because the national case studies are alert to both the distant and recent past.
—Martin Gorsky, Social History of Medicine

The global survey of market influences in health care that Callahan and Wasunna conduct is extensive and complete.
—Journal of Value Inquiry

From the Publisher

[Callahan and Wasunna] convincingly show that, in health care, markets are famous for maximizing choice, not efficiency.

Hastings Center Report - Peter A. Ubel

The global survey of market influences in health care that Callahan and Wasunna conduct is extensive and complete.

Journal of Value Inquiry

Among the many valuable contributions of Medicine and the Market . . . is its potential to motivate a new program of qualitative research into the impact of different health care funding and distribution arrangements, not simply upon our bodies, but also, as it were, upon our souls.

Perspectives in Biology and Medicine - James Lindemann Nelson

A book that deserves to be read by anyone concerned with health systems analysis and health care reform.

Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy - Andreas Reis

A detailed analysis of the differences between health care systems in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Latin America, and several countries in Asia and Africa.

PsycCRITIQUES - Mary Beth Kenkel

The book will interest readers of this journal because the national case studies are alert to both the distant and recent past.

Social History of Medicine - Martin Gorsky

A timely and necessary contribution. Whether or not one agrees with the authors' conclusions, the book is essential reading for anyone concerned with health care reform. It carries out the critical task of placing our national health care debates in the wider context of justice and health care reform around the world.

JAMA - Nancy S. Jecker

The book will interest readers of this journal because the national case studies are alert to both the distant and recent past.

— Martin Gorsky

Social History of Medicine

[Callahan and Wasunna] convincingly show that, in health care, markets are famous for maximizing choice, not efficiency.

— Peter A. Ubel

Hastings Center Report

Among the many valuable contributions of Medicine and the Market... is its potential to motivate a new program of qualitative research into the impact of different health care funding and distribution arrangements, not simply upon our bodies, but also, as it were, upon our souls.

— James Lindemann Nelson

Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

A detailed analysis of the differences between health care systems in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Latin America, and several countries in Asia and Africa.

— Mary Beth Kenkel

PsycCRITIQUES

A timely and necessary contribution. Whether or not one agrees with the authors' conclusions, the book is essential reading for anyone concerned with health care reform. It carries out the critical task of placing our national health care debates in the wider context of justice and health care reform around the world.

— Nancy S. Jecker, PhD

JAMA