There are two primary points of contention in the statement which needs to be addressed separately when applied to the given question. The first is whether or not current day health care is consistent with the “evolution of the hospital as a unique social phenomenon” that reflects societal attitudes toward illness and welfare, the second is whether the field of healthcare administration today “encompasses both the technical aspects of the management of healthcare delivery and the social and public policy issues related to access to care”.
In addressing the first contention, it is important to reflect on Jordan (2001) which describes how present day corporations view healthcare policies. Businesses have realized that it costs them less to subsidize their employees’ healthcare plans than to pay hospital bills themselves during unfortunate occurrences of their employees getting sick (Jordan, 2001). This is what basically brought the rise of private health management organizations. Growing social demand for health assurance ushered the boom of HMOs that are able to offer businesses an affordable means of assuring their employees health.
This proves that current day healthcare’s evolution to group insurance systems was brought forth mainly by current social attitude towards staying healthy. In the second contention, we examine HMOs as discussed by O’Brien (2003). He discussed that HMOs have themselves evolved into entities that not only provide health care centers or send employed physicians to clients, but also sponsor lobbyists who clamor in congress for free healthcare and against the proliferation of current health hazards (O’Brien, 2003).
HMOs have in effect become advocates of healthy living, since reducing the risk of people getting sick serves their best interest. Therefore we can say that the current health care administration does deal not only with the technical aspects of healthcare providing but also its social and political facets.
References
Jordan, L. (2001). America’s Corporate History. NY: Prentice Hall. O’Brien, A. (2003). Public Policy and Health Management Organizations. MI: J. J. Kenton Publishing.