ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a new structure for health services delivery is emerging, a major component of which is the health maintenance organization (HMO). It examines the extent of possibilities for and the implications of a major corporate takeover of the health care delivery institutions. Political economic analysis begins with the premise that the economic structure of the society serves as the underlying context for the functions and organizational development of its various support sectors. International conditions and acute domestic stagnation produced an immediate concern for the efficient functioning of American capitalism. The HMO strategy of the Nixon Administration demonstrates the state's role in bringing about a new organization form for health services delivery. Corporate ventures in HMOs came through commercial insurance companies, industrial corporations, and workplace integration of industrial medicine with family medical care. Large scale complex corporations have a profound need to dominate and control all the conditions that affect their viability.
