Audiobook24 hours
The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry
Written by Paul Starr
Narrated by Sean Runnette
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Considered the definitive history of the American healthcare system, The Social Transformation of American Medicine examines how the roles of doctors, hospitals, health plans, and government programs have evolved over the last two and a half centuries. How did the financially insecure medical profession of the nineteenth century become a most prosperous one in the twentieth century? Why was national health insurance blocked? And why are corporate institutions taking over our medical care system today? Beginning in 1760 and coming up to the present day, renowned sociologist Paul Starr traces the decline of professional sovereignty in medicine, the political struggles over healthcare, and the rise of a corporate system.
Updated with a new preface and an epilogue analyzing developments since the early 1980s, this new edition of The Social Transformation of American Medicine is a must-listen for anyone concerned about the future of our fraught healthcare system.
Updated with a new preface and an epilogue analyzing developments since the early 1980s, this new edition of The Social Transformation of American Medicine is a must-listen for anyone concerned about the future of our fraught healthcare system.
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Reviews for The Social Transformation of American Medicine
Rating: 4.250000092592592 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
54 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was at Drs. Glen and Ros Ramsey's house in 1982 or 1983 and Glen recommended that I read this book. Well, I thought it over and decided to go ahead and read it. Sadly, it is now a little dated, but I can't blame Glen for that, and it is a great socio-economic history of Medicine in the US–perhaps the greatest. The big villain is usually the AMA in most of the described conflicts over the years; this comes as no surprise if you realize what the AMA members' interests are. I am tempted to quote a great American, "Who knew that health care was so complicated?", but that's the one thing that (almost) everybody does know. The solution is easy, invite some Canadians down to set things up, but that would require either a benevolent dictatorship or a special freeze device that could be used to temporarily inactivate the AMA, big Pharma, the commercial insurance industry, the Blues, the hospitals, the medical schools, and all healthcare workers. They'd be pissed off when they thawed out, but, let's face it, they had their chance.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In The Social Transformation of American Medicine, Paul Starr argues, "The dominance of the medical profession...goes considerably beyond this rational foundation. Its authority spills over its clinical boundaries into arenas of moral and political action for which medical judgment is only partially relevant and often incompletely equipped. Moreover, the profession has been able to turn its authority into social privilege, economic power, and political influence" (pg. 5). He bases his analysis on three premises: "Social structure is the outcome of historical processes" (pg. 7); "the organization of medical care cannot be understood with reference solely to medicine, the relations between doctors and patients, or even all the various forces internal to the health care sector" (pg. 8); and "the problem of professional sovereignty calls for an approach that encompasses both culture and institutions" (pg. 8). With this focus and organizing premises, Starr traces medicine's social role from the colonial era through the Clinton administration. Anyone interested in medical history will find this an invaluable source while those studying medicine should read this to better contextualize their own place in American society so that they can work with greater self-awareness.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I had to read this for my Health Law class. It was *excellent*. Anyone interested on how we got from there to here in the medical mess that we call health insurance, it's a must read. My only complaint is that it's dated since it was published in the '80s. I'd love to see a second edition. Don't call me crazy fellow Health Law students. :)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How medicine fell from being a humanitarian profession to an entreprenurial enterprise.