A Classification Scheme for Medical Expenditures

Authors

James Veney, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Arnold Kaluzny, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Abstract

Medical care represents a significant portion of society's response to problems affecting social welfare. While the problems surrounding medical care are complex, a major part of these problems can be attributed to the fact that medical care expenditures are viewed indiscriminately without regard for the nature of the expenditures themselves. This paper presents a framework to differentiate various types of medical care expenditures. The paper argues that medical care expenditures can be classified as either instrumental-consummatory or as external-internal relative to the medical care system. The consequences of this classification and some conclusions which may be drawn from it are explicated in the paper.

Recommended Citation

Veney, James and Kaluzny, Arnold (1977) "A Classification Scheme for Medical Expenditures," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 4: Iss. 8, Article 9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.1234
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol4/iss8/9