Trusting Medicine: The Moral Cost of Managed Care

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Does your relationship with your doctor really affect your health? How does declining patient trust lead to poor health outcomes?Healthcare systems in much of the western world are in distress: costs are high, patients, healthcare providers and insurers are disgruntled. The US and European countries have very different systems, although both have high health expenditure with seemingly low outcomes and unequal access.The system of managed care in the United States was viewed as a potential solution, and has been followed with much interest in the UK and other European countries looking to stem ever-spiraling healthcare costs. Managed care has remained controversial, however, while much of the debate about healthcare has focused on costs with little attention to the social outcomes. This book reframes the dialogue by looking at the consequences of managed care for the community and in particular at the doctor-patient relationship as part of the fabric of society."Trusting Medicine" provides an overview of healthcare spending and the cost-containment mechanisms that have lead to an increasingly corporate style of healthcare in the US. It also looks at what happens to doctor-patient relationships in a managed care system and how good doctor-patient relationships could contribute to health promotion and to social capital. The book concludes with policy implications, including the applicability of lessons to other areas, such as environmental protection and policing.This book will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students in health studies, health policy, health promotion, medical sociology, sociology, as well as for policy makers in health and other areas in whichtrust relationships and social capital play a part.Providing a fascinating overview of healthcare spending and cost-containment mechanisms in the US, this book explores the consequences of managed care for the community with particular attention paid to doctor-patient relationships. The author studies this significant relationship from a social perspective arguing that shifting financial risk onto doctors in a profit-making system seriously damages patient trust. In addition this undermines overall social capital, which in turn has been linked to health outcomes. Including case study examples and policy implications, this insightful text explores an important, though little-discussed outcome of healthcare reform and will be a welcome addition to the current healthcare literature.