PARADIGMS IN THE STUDY OF HEALTH POLICY

This essay identifies and analyzes four different paradigms in the study of problems in the American health system. The paradigms, which are labelled the individual–deficiency, the economic, the organizational, and the Marxist perspective, are examined as “diagnostic paradigms” according to the way in which problems are conceptualized and the way in which remedial strategies are chosen. The essay shows the differences and similarities between characteristic diagnoses and policy solutions within the four perspectives. It is argued that such paradigms can easily be identified in recent health reform proposals.