Power and Illness: The Failure and Future of American Health Policy

In this timely and persuasive appeal for revision of U.S. health-care funding priorities, Fox ( Health Politics, Health Policies ) contends that, as a result of 19th-century advances in bacteriology research, largely concerned with infectious diseases, resources are devoted to them rather than to the prevention of--and care for those who have--chronic ailments and disabilities which, he stresses, cause more deaths and which are now only partially covered by Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross. He points out that the allocation by a national health service of more funds for prevention and management of chronic diseases, much of it in non-hospital settings, would also liberate resources for coverage of the now uninsured--the total program, he emphasizes, to be integrated into the national economy. (Sept.)