Policy without politics: the limits of social engineering.

Full Abstract

The extent of coverage provided by a country's health services is directly related to the level of development of that country's democratic process (and its power relations). The United States is the only developed country whose government does not guarantee access to health care for its citizens. It is also the developed country with the least representative and most insufficient democratic institutions, owing to the constitutional framework of the political system, the privatization of the electoral process, and the enormous power of corporate interests in both the media and the political process. As international experience shows, without a strong labor-based movement willing to be radical in its protests, a universal health care program will never be accepted by the US establishment.

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Author information

Author/s: Navarro, Vicente (V);

Affiliation: Department of Health and Public Policy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md 21205, USA. vnavarro(-atsign-)jhsph.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: American journal of public health (Am J Public Health), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jan; vol 93 (issue 1) : pp 64-7

Dates: Created 2003/01/03; Completed 2003/01/22; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 12511388, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Capitalism
Democracy
Health Care Reform - legislation & jurisprudence
Humans
Labor Unions
National Health Insurance, United States - legislation & jurisprudence
Politics

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