ABSTRACT
This Introduction present an overview of key concept discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The majority of the population in England consider it, the most natural thing in the world, when they fall ill, to receive free treatment without question or delay. Americans hold that no person is entitled to occupy a free bed unless or until author can prove beyond dispute that he is unable to pay something for the treatment he received in the hospital ward. The new buildings were opened by Queen Victoria who planted a tree with a diamond-studded trowel. But almost immediately the hospital was beset with chronic financial shortage. Our history is one of health care rather than health, but concerns regarding the latter are, as one might expect, a feature of the former. One should note in particular the Liberal reforms, the case for health care reform in the 1930s, and the Beveridge Report.
