The Second Sickness: Contradictions of Capitalist Health Care [Paperback]

Superb. . . . Stands out like a beacon amidst confusion. . . . The richness of detail and evidence adduced to support the arguments are exceptional.Makes good reading for anyone interested in health policy. . . . Waitzkin's warnings about the limits of health reform are thought-provoking.This is not a political book but one of political action. The healing profession has to face not only sickness in the individual but sickness in society; all too often, the second sickness is the root of the first. This book will spark controversy. . . .Since the appearance of Waitzkin's The Second Sickness, a landmark book of the 1980s, American medicine has been dramatically transformed. Waitzkin's earlier edition used qualitative research to take readers inside the black box of medical decision making. This new, fully updated and expanded edition retains the earlier edition's vivid approach and adds timely analysis of how managed care and other economic and social forces influence medical practice today.Since the appearance of Waitzkins The Second Sickness, a landmark book of the 1980s, American medicine has been dramatically transformed. Waitzkins earlier edition used qualitative research to take readers inside the black box of medical decisionmaking. This new, fully updated and expanded edition retains the earlier edition's vivid approach and adds timely analysis of how managed care and other economic and social forces influence medical practice today.Chapter 1 List of Figures and Tables Chapter 2 Preface to the Second Edition Chapter 3 Preface to the First Edition and Acknowledgments Part 4 I: Medicine, Social Structure, and Social Pathology Chapter 5 1. Health Care, Social Contradictions, and the Dilemmas of Reform Chapter 6 2. Social Structures of Medical Oppression Chapter 7 3. The Social Origins of Illness: A Neglected History Part 8 II: Problems in Contemporary Health Care Chapter 9 4. Technology, Health Costs, and the Structure of Private Profit Chapter 10 5. SocialC4