The rise and fall of HMOs : an American health care revolution / Jan Gregoire Coombs.

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, [2005], ©2005.

xviii, 412 pages ; 24 cm

Introduction: American health care insurance prior to 1970 -- Dreams of a medical utopia -- The HMO Act and its aftermath -- Health care in rural America -- Affiliated providers and necessary compromises -- Emerging problems with Medicare and Medicaid -- Entering a management revolution -- Assessing HMO quality and consumer satisfaction in the 1980s -- Idealism confronts realities -- Competing values doom a partnership -- The perils of antitrust in the health care marketplace -- HMOs and public programs in the 1990s and early 2000s -- HMO enrollment growth in the private sector in the 1990s and early 2000s -- Demands for accountability -- Critics and would-be reformers -- Conclusion: lessons from Marshfield.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-398) and index.