ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book traces both changes in ideas about health and disease that have occurred during the past half-century and changes in the organization of health-care services during the same period of time. It discusses the evolution of American health-care organization in some detail, showing how innovations arose in response to moments of crisis or opportunity that were created by changing national and international political and economic developments. The book explores efforts to rethink basic approaches to health care, noting lessons to be learned from efforts to move beyond medical science's almost total dependence on biochemistry and its preference for high technology. A series of social, economic, and political developments at a national and international level led to new ways to organize and fund health-care services.
