The American Health Care System

The emergence of managed care is the subject of this report -- my on the American health care system. It represents the latest stage in a struggle that has pitted the priorities of practicing physicians against structures that have sought to gain firmer control over what do. The traditional autonomy that physicians have enjoyed as to the sick and as recipients of a state grant of monopoly power in practice -- what Freidson calls "professional dominance" -- is being by these new arrangements. The new constraints, along with other and social pressures, are encouraging physicians to aggregate in professional groups that offer them greater protection against external on their autonomy, as well as more regular working conditions.