title: Health care reform: Believe it or not, the ball is back in our court.
abstract: Orderly arrangement of parts into a whole; a comprehensive plan. SCENARIO: A series of activities or events. In the 1950s, President Eisenhower warned of the waste and danger inherent in a "military-industrial complex" controlled by elected officials who were professional politicians. In the 1960s, some worried that a similar "medical-industrial complex" could develop and that health care could become a "political football." Sure enough, in the 1970s and '80s, a U.S. health care scenario evolved that is characterized by financial, political, and legal maneuvering rather than by genuine interest in providing dependable medical care on the scariest days of people's lives. If problems of dependability, affordability, and access are truly to be solved, this scenario must change. And until these problems are truly solved, unwelcome pressure on providers will continue. Furthermore, political action can only create a system. The scenario is created by the attitudes, motivations, and actions of health care providers.
authors.affiliation: Thompson, Mohr, and Associates, Dunedin, FL.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000639:trends*; D008486:Physician Executives; D010819:Physician's Role; D010934:Planning Techniques; D011050:Policy Making; D014481:United States