Medical Care Medical Cost: The Search for a Health Insurance Policy »

After decades of neglect, health care for Americans became a part of social policy in the 1960s, only to fall increasingly under the influence of market-driven theorists and commerce-oriented caregivers. Rashi Fein, Professor of Economics of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and former senior staff member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, warns that the American health care insurance system is in jeopardy and calls for its reform. He argues that the quest for efficiency in the delivery of health care services must be joined with a concern for equity in their distribution and that we need policies informed by long-held values, traditions, and experiences in the shaping of medical care delivery.