BOOK REVIEWS
The political economy of health care. A clinical perspective
Julian Tudor Hart. Bristol: The Policy Press, 2006, £14.99. 1861348088
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Not surprisingly, this is a socialist view on the history, current state and future of the National Health Service. The book provides interesting insights into the working of the National Health Service (NHS) and its aims and objectives, which, Tudor Hart argues, are almost entirely "hard" health outcomes (healthier births and so on) with perhaps some role in the legitimisation of the state. Little attention is given to process outcomes of the NHS or to outcomes that may be beneficial outside the healthcare sector. Happiness, in Tudor Harts’ view, is a part of health, in that someone who is unhappy is not healthy. This simplifies the arguments around the subject and runs counter to a substantial literature in which happiness is the ultimate aim and good health a part of this.
The book contains numerous similar simplifications and generalisations. Economists are in general portrayed as right wing pro-marketeers who advocate
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