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Managed Care is an administrative apporach to
distributing health care resources. It has been
developed and integrated within the neo-liberal
market of the United States from where it has been
exported globally. Justifications for adopting
managed care lie in purported claims to higher
levels of efficiency and greater consumer choice.
However, under managed care, it can be seen that the
pursuit of cost control, if not actual profit,
becomes the primary objective of health care
activity. Accordingly, the ethical purposes of
health care provision are displaced by the economic
purposes of the so-called 'free' market. In this
way, the integrity of both health care practitioners
and communities is corrupted. At the same time, it
can be seen that the claims of managed care
proponents to higher levels of efficiency and
consumer choice are largely unfounded; indeed,
consequent to market competition, costs have
escalated while access has diminished. Nonetheless,
when protected within a non-market or solidarity-
based context, subject to the requirements of
justice, a limited number of managed care techniques
can assist in efforts to conserve health care
resources.

Administering Health Care Services: an ethical analysis of Managed Care