Dimensions of crisis in american health care: Toward a general theory of crisis in health care

Abstract

Abstract This paper addresses the notion of “crisis” as it has been employed, in both the human science and popular literatures, to describe the current condition of health care in the United States. In an overview fashion, selected themes found throughout this crisis literature are presented and discussed. These themes are then theoretically reconceptualized and reorganized as “socio-medical” problems which relate to one or the other of the following generic rubrics: (1) Issues of management and resource allocation, or (2) Issues of rupture within the prevailing frames of rationality and/or social organization. This entire discussion is couched within a general theory of social crisis and social dependency so as to better illustrate the relevance of this literature for sociological research in the medical area. This reformulation of the crisis literature is instructive on at least two broad theoretical levels. First, it provides a convenient, albeit perhaps somewhat simplistic, frame from which to lend a measure of coherence to a rapidly growing and seemingly disjointed body of literature. And, secondly, this reconceptualization can be used to critically assess the current debates concerning the problematic character of the relationship between the human sciences, sociology in particular, and the institution of health care delivery in the United States.