Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: A true revolution has taken place in the
financing of health care in America. Today, managed care is dominating
the way Americans receive and pay for their health care. With the rise
of managed care medicine has been wrenched out of its atomized world of
solo physician practices and community hospitals and has been
transformed into a modern industry of giant for-profit companies traded
on Wall Street. The current marketplace is characterized by mergers,
acquisitions and the establishment of giant multi-billion dollar
healthcare networks. Hospitals and managed care plans run big
advertisement campaigns in the media, praising their products and
services in order to get the biggest share possible of the $1.1 trillion
America spends on health care each year. All parties involved in
providing health care lobby for their interests at all levels of
political decision-making in order to influence legislators and
policymakers. Today's health care market changes quickly and at a high
rate. New variations of managed care arise constantly making any
analysis of managed care an ongoing game of "catch-up" with the
marketplace. While writing this paper, for example, UnitedHealthcare
dropped one of the major managed care instruments, utilization review,
to address public's concerns and pending legislation. This paper will
take a "snapshot" of managed care on the eve of the new millennium by
using the most recent information available. After this introduction,
the paper will give a description of the current American health care
system in chapter two (The U.S. Health Care System). Then, the paper
will focus on two aspects: A detailed description of managed care in
chapter three (Managed Care) and an introduction of the main issues
connected with this way of providing health care in chapter four
(Managed Care issues). The paper will argue in chapter five (Results and
Future Developments), that managed care of the future will be a "light"
version of what i
