Financing Medicine (Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine)

Financing Medicine brings together a collection of essays dealing with the financing of medical care in Britain since the mid-eighteenth century, with a view to addressing two major issues:

• Why did the funding of the British health system develop in the way it did?
• What were the ramifications of these arrangements for the nature and extent of health care before the NHS?

The book also goes on to explore the 'lessons' and legacies of the past which bear upon developments under the NHS.

The contributors to this volume provide a sustained and detailed examination of the model of health care which preceded the NHS - an organization whose distinctive features hold such fascination for the scholars of health systems - and their insights illuminate current debates on the future of the NHS.

For students and scholars of the history of medicine, this will prove essential reading.

Martin Gorsky is Senior Lecturer in the Contemporary History of Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He most recently co-authored Mutualism and Health Care: hospital contributory schemes in twentieth century Britain. Sally Sheard is Senior Lecturer in History of Medicine at the University of Liverpool. She co-edited Body and City: histories of urban public health. Her most recent co-authored book is The Nation’s Doctor: the role of the Chief Medical Officer, 1855–1998.