title: Health planning: progress, prospects, and issues.
abstract: The new Health Planning Act may have prescribed collection of too much data, too soon. There is no refuge in numbers from the social, professional, and political complexities of planning. A mechanistic criterion of "need" breaks down on close examination--we will have to recognize the effect of "availability." There is little or no experience in carrying out policies of selective contraction; modesty in claims and moderation in pursuit of goals are called for.
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D006285:Health Planning / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000191:economics; D006307:Health Systems Agencies / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D009519:New York City; D011640:Public Policy; D012040:Regional Health Planning / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States