Abstract
For some years concern about the health sector has been expressed in terms of two major problems confronting the sector: unequal access to health services and rapidly rising costs. More recently, the lion’s share of attention has been directed to costs, and the catchword of policy makers, planners, and administrators has become ‘cost containment’. It is not that problems relating to access have been solved. To the contrary, despite improvement in the access of the nation’s low income and minority families to health services, problems, including numerous inequities, of access persist. Nevertheless, the priority of cost concerns is clear. The purpose of this essay is to explore the meaning of cost containment and its implication for health services delivery with particular reference to the impact on justice within the health care system.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Anon.: 1970, Second Report on 1978 Survey of Health Planning Agencies, American Health Planning Association, Washington, D.C.
Freeland, M. S. et al.: 1979, ‘National Health Care Hospital Input Price Index’, Health Care Financing Review 1 (Summer), 37–61.
Gibson, R. M.: 1979, ‘National Health Expenditures, 1978’, Health Care Financing Review 1 (Summer), 22.
Lyle, C. et al.: 1974, ‘Cost of Medical Care in a Practice of Internal Medicine’, Annals of Internal Medicine 81 (July), 1–6.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: 1977, Public Expenditure on Health, OECD, Paris.
Outka, G.: 1974, ‘Social Justice and Equal Access to Health Care’, Journal of Religious Ethics 2, 11–32.
Salkever, D. S. and Bice, T. W.: 1979, Hospital Certificate-of-Need Controls, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C.
Scitovsky, A. and McCall, N.: 1975, ‘Changes in the Costs of Treatment of Selected Illnesses, 1951–1964–1971’, Health Policy Program Discussion Paper, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco.
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare: 1978, Health: United States, 1978, National Center for Health Statistics, Publication No. (PHS) 78–1232, December.
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare: 1977, Summary of Grants and Contracts Active on September 30, 1977, Office of Health Research, Statistics and Technology, publication No. (PHS) 70-3234, p.1.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1981 D. Ridel Publishing Company
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Carney, K. (1981). Cost Containment and Justice. In: Shelp, E.E. (eds) Justice and Health Care. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8392-2_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8392-2_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-277-1251-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-8392-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive