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Medical Care Prices in the United States: Private Dominion and the Relative-Value Scale

New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry

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Field Value
 
Title Medical Care Prices in the United States: Private Dominion and the Relative-Value Scale
 
Creator Graham, Jeremy David
 
Subject Privatization; Public Health; Political Economy; Medicine
 
Description ABSTRACT: Medical care in the US is priced by commercial forces. The forces are not free-market, but rather are controlled and owned by specific private entities. The legally-mandated method to set medical care prices (the Relative Value Scale) mandates the use of specific, privately-owned commercial billing tools. Prices, and a pricing method, ultimately direct what kinds of medical care is available in the US, and the existing structure values less-needed and inappropriate care above needed shortage care. The pricing method’s origin, its designers’ market biases, and its use to enforce a specific private locus of control are examined. A critical perspective on the sanctioned scale’s validity, its consequences for US medical care services, and exclusive control by a specific technocratic elite are examined.
 
Publisher New Proposals Publishing Society
 
Contributor This work has no external funding.
 
Date 2009-09-22
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
research-article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/newproposals/article/view/237
 
Source New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry; Vol 3, No 1 (2009); 23-32
1715-6718
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/newproposals/article/view/237/366
http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/newproposals/article/downloadSuppFile/237/22
 
Coverage United States
1979-present