ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how far the constitutive features of market relations present in the area in question most visibly perhaps in the United States, fit into the framework of health care delivery. First and foremost, in a market-driven economy, commodities are fungible, that is, interchangeable In this view of health care, physicians and patients become commodities, too. The identity of physicians, hospitals, clinic locations, and laboratories makes no difference unless a clear quality gap or danger is demonstrated. Patients, too, become fungible. They are "insured lives." They can be traded and bargained for, back and forth, in mergers, network formation, or sales of hospitals and clinics. The business ethos puts its emphasis exactly on the bottom line, on profit, on an excess of revenue over expenses. The aim of business is to maximize returns to investors. For-profit organizations return those profits to investors, executives, and board members.
