American health care : realities, rights, and reforms /

Dougherty (Creighton University) organizes his work in three main sections: (1) an empirical investigation of the performance of the present American health-care system; (2) a philosophical analysis and defense of the concept of a moral right to health care; and (3) a discussion of various policy alternatives for reform of the system for delivering health services. The book is well organized, and the author provides a fair hearing for all the various philosophical viewpoints regarding the role of health care in our society. He concludes that there is a moral right to health care and describes his suggestions for reform in far less detail and specificity than his original analysis. The most likely audiences for the book are graduate students and faculty in philosophy. To a far lesser degree, social scientists and policy analysts concerned with system reform may have some interest. Consequently, the book may be an appropriate acquisition for graduate libraries in philosophy, social science, and public health. M.D. Fottler University of Alabama in Birmingham