What School can Teach about Health Services Planning

Abstract

This paper advances two propositions. The first is: It is important to know why one wishes to plan in a particular instance. Sometimes it is better not to intervene; and at other times it may be preferable to resort to other mechanisms of public intervention than planning, such as licensure, public utility status, and pricing schemes. The second proposition is advanced more tentatively at this time: Schools should concentrate on teaching the techniques of planning. True, techniques are not all-important in planning. However, one can learn the limitations of techniques and the relative worth of value judgments from a critique of past planning efforts. This is the second part of a course in the Foundations of Health Planning, or the third if the bases for planning are taken as the first. This paper is based on a presentation given to the Seminar on Planning at The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore on October 15, 1970. Much of the author's inquiry into health planning was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Grant Number HS00363, Research Program in the Economics of Health, from the National Center for Health Services Research and Development, which terminated on September 30, 1970.