The ultimate aim of health care policy is good care at good prices. Managed care failed to achieve this goal through influencing providers, so health policy has turned to the only market-based option left: treating patients like consumers. Health insurance and tax policy now pressure patients to spend their own money when they select health plans, providers, and treatments. Expecting patients t...

The issues raised by Ian Kennedy in the course of his 1980 Reith Lectures on medical ethics are also of concern to Great Britain's Patients Association. Ackroyd, as Chairman of the Association, does not however share Kennedy's view that the consumerism model for regulating abuses is appropriate to medical care. She would prefer to have the Health Service Commissioner authorized to investigate...

New governance practices associated wit the modernisation of health systems within Europe focus on equipping health consumers with more information and power in their interactions with clinicians. This paper uses material on health care reform in Britain and Germany to highlight ways in which consumerism is refracted through different institutional histories and current political projects. Thes...

The American psyche is centered on consumerism. Television viewers alone are bombarded by a multitude of advertisements for cars, clothing, food, and self-improvement programs. The recurring mantra is that everyone needs a new “insert product here.” One industry that is steadily growing as an object of American consumerism is the dieting industry. It is difficult to walk through a bookstore wit...

In its European Agreements with Central and Eastern European countries (Croatia has yet to be included) the EU has spelt-out a commitment towards helping them integrate with the EU. The evolution of these economies from centrally planned to market economies is important to achieving this. A characteristic of the transitional processes of these countries is the emergence of a pan-European consum...