The commodification of American health care

Abstract

Since 1980, cost containment efforts have radically transformed the delivery of medical services in the United States. The number and diversity of private, for-profit delivery systems have significantly increased and so has the competition among them. Some Marxists have conceptualized these changes as a transition from a non-commodity to a commodity form of medical care. They have labeled this the process of 'commodification' of medical services. However, this paper demonstrates that this process took place over 50 years ago. In light of this historical finding, an alternative Marxian analysis of the current medical conjuncture is briefly presented. Several of the key attractions of this approach are discussed.