PROBLEMS OF MEDICAL AFFLUENCE

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Abstract
Health development is essentially a political and social process that should start off with the acceptance of the social function of health and should ensure that health technology is developed and applied in harmony with this social function. It is not synonymous with the development of increasingly sophisticated services in medical institutions. In many countries the value of these expensive institutions can be seriously questioned if measured in terms of their impact on improving the health status of the populations. No country can afford to provide every citizen with every possible form of medical technology, nor would this necessarily be good for the health of the individual and of society. On the contrary, quite apart from possible adverse side effects and iatrogenic diseases, it would tend to make people overdependent on a medical "aristotechnocracy." Paradoxically, though medical care is often justified on the grounds that it reduces work-absenteeism, quite the contrary seems to be happening in many situations. In many countries, the so-called "health" industry is already consuming a high proportion of the national manpower pool and is approaching the upper limit, beyond which it could be seriously questioned whether medical care, as currently practised, is not becoming detrimental to further economic development. Other social sectors are in the same position, making it imperative to join forces in common planning and coordination of all the social services. Such planning requires clear definition of social policy, of which health policy forms an integral part.

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