In a recent editorial in this journal Pierre-Gerlier Forest foretells a coming revolution in health policy based on the synthesis of four conceptual innovations and one technological breakthrough. As much as I agree with the intellectual story told in this editorial I present a more skeptical view of the effect of paradigm shifts on healthcare systems on the ground. I argue that ideas triumph when times are ripe and times are ripe in health policy when payers and providers can find a compromise between the need to value what providers do and their professional autonomy. I also argue that autonomy is a product of the market: patients value autonomy and prefer doctors to insurers.
Grignon, M. (2014). A New Synthesis in Search of Synthesizing Agents; Comment on “A New Synthesis”. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2(3), 143-144. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.27
MLA
Michel Grignon. "A New Synthesis in Search of Synthesizing Agents; Comment on “A New Synthesis”", International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2, 3, 2014, 143-144. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.27
HARVARD
Grignon, M. (2014). 'A New Synthesis in Search of Synthesizing Agents; Comment on “A New Synthesis”', International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2(3), pp. 143-144. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.27
VANCOUVER
Grignon, M. A New Synthesis in Search of Synthesizing Agents; Comment on “A New Synthesis”. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2014; 2(3): 143-144. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.27