ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the structural constraints which preselect the issues to which the state in capitalist societies is capable of responding, and consequently, which set the upper limits on what can be done by the state in order to improve the level of health in the population. In order to identify the boundaries of state intervention in health, the existence of a paradox between “the enthusiasm associated with developments and the reality of decreasing returns to health for rapidly increasing efforts” must first be recognized. State intervention to maintain or extend the market for health goods or services automatically politicizes health care delivery and imposes, in the short run, the necessity for some form of regulation the most important of which being the “planning” of the allocation of resources. In intervening in the health field, the state, must be responsive both to the economic requirements of the health industry and to the organized demands of the public.
