Back to Reform: Values, Markets, and the Health Care System

Back to Reform is a persuasive discussion of the moral values that motivate the movement for health care reform. The book is also a critique of the overreliance on market reforms for improvements in health care. Examining the values at the heart of health care reform, Dougherty displays the incompatibility between them and those guiding the market.
The author starts with an overview of the health care system and the nature of moral values. He shows how stresses in the health care system are caused by the increased use of market reforms and how these reforms are inconsistent with the values inherent to genuine health care. Each chapter considers a central moral value--its historical roots and current meanings, religious and secular influences. The values addressed--including human dignity, caring, protection of the least well-off, the common good, cost containment, responsibiliy, and excellence--are then applied to the health care system.
Back to Reform is a thoughtful reminder of the moral dimension of health care and health care reform. It builds a strong argument for a limited and well-defined yet leading role for government if health care change is expected to amount to health care reform.

Charles J. Dougherty is at Creighton University.