Capital formation and the united states health care system: the relationship between the private and the public sector

Abstract

In this chapter, we begin to clarify the role played by corporate capital in the development of the United States health care system. To do so we explore the role of capital, more generally, in health care expansion and we broaden the traditional focus on capital within the private sector to include public expenditures and subsidies as part of a system of capital flows that constrains corporate development. We consider government subsidies and health insurance reimbursement practices as capital formation mechanisms and we investigate the history of health care funding in this context. We understand the development of the U.S. health care system as driven by the interaction between the public and private sectors: Actions of the state create constraints on private investment and subsequent private investment decisions create equally compelling constraints on future public policy. We view the rise of corporate capital as a constrained consequence of these earlier dynamics. Moreover, we suggest that government spending patterns can have as profound an effect on corporate development as legislative activity and we believe this is has important implications for the development of health care systems.

Citation

Mintz, B. and Schwartz, M. (2000), "Capital formation and the united states health care system: the relationship between the private and the public sector", Jacobs Kronenfeld, J. (Ed.) Health, Illness, and use of Care: The Impact of Social Factors (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 229-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0275-4959(00)80030-7