000 01922cam a2200169 4500500
005 20250112023125.0
041 _afre
042 _adc
100 1 0 _aFarmer, Paul
_eauthor
700 1 0 _a Rylko-Bauer, Barbara
_eauthor
245 0 0 _aThe "Exceptional" American Healthcare System
260 _c2001.
500 _a20
520 _aDespite the sums invested and unparalleled cutting-edge techniques, the American health-care system stands out for its inefficiency and its inability to answer the needs of the bulk of the population. This is attested by the increase in medical errors, the impressive number of Americans without any form of health-insurance and finally the general difficulty in accessing care. If the US is exceptional in this area, it is due to the absence of universal coverage and the fragmentary nature of the medical safety net, to which must be added the particularly alarming situation of society’s most vulnerable groups ; all of which seems to prove that leaving health care to market forces, much in vogue in the 1990s, by no means turns out to be the promised panacea. Today voices can be heard reminding us that medical care cannot be regarded as a simple commodity and denouncing the dysfunction engendered by managers concerned more with profit than with equality and safety. For patient care is being sacrificed to budgetary demands, so that the institutions dispensing free care to the most needy are seeing their social mission coming under threat. It therefore seems a matter of urgency to submit the American health-care system to a thorough critical examination, especially because it has a growing number of disciples in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere.
786 0 _nActes de la recherche en sciences sociales | o 139 | 4 | 2001-09-01 | p. 13-30 | 0335-5322
856 4 1 _uhttps://shs.cairn.info/journal-actes-de-la-recherche-en-sciences-sociales-2001-4-page-13?lang=en
999 _c141362
_d141362