Managed Competition and the Patient-Physician Relationship

There has been little discussion of how managed competition might the patient-physician relationship. However, the effect of any health care system on this relationship deserves more than an, since the interaction between patient and physician is the final pathway through which reforms will be played out. In the short term, success or failure of any new model will undoubtedly be judged primarily its economic consequences. But the ultimate stability of the model will hinge on the quality of the patient-physician relationships that emerge the longer term. Various aspects of the structure of managed competition us concerned that it would undermine this fundamental relationship.