The Health Care Industry in Advanced Capitalism

Abstract

This paper analyzes the nature of the health care industry and its role within the capitalist system. By developing an understanding of this relation ship, we should be able to understand more fully the internal dynamics of the health care system and to develop mutually supportive movements for change within and outside it. The form and dynamics of the health care system are grounded in class struggle. The transformation of health care into a commodity, and the production of surplus value in the health care industry, are central fea tures of contemporary health care organization. The health care industry performs four interrelated economic functions: accumulation, provision of investment opportunities, absorption of surplus labor, and maintenance of the labor force. It also has important ideological functions of systemic legitimation, social control, and reproduction of the capitalist class structure.