Abstract

Manpower policies are analyzed in Chapter Six. The progression of federally mandated outcomes in manpower development is noted along with the conflicts between various manpower policies. In a brief concluding chapter the incoherence of present health policy is reviewed by way of summary. A recommendation is presented for basing health policy on an obligation to meet the requisites of human life. Chapter Four gives an analysis of health policy since 1946 on the organization and distribution of health care services. It is found that conflicting theories of justice inform these policies. Chapter Five is an examination of health care financing. Medicare and Medicaid are found to rest on incompatible values. Innovative financing mechanisms like Health Maintenance Organizations are also examined. The theories of Rawls, utilitarianism and Nozick are examined and their respective tenets are identified. Identifying the fundamental features of these theories enables the analysis of recent health policy as expressed in federal legislation. A melioristic theory of value is defended and a framework developed in Chapter Three for articulating value subscription in laws governing components of the health care delivery system. ;Leading theories of justice and dominate values present in recent health legislation are articulated and clarified. Following the presentation of an overview of the health care delivery system methods are developed for identifying theories of justice and leading values in health legislation to determine the coherence of health policy.