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December 1985 (Volume 63)
Quarterly Article
Donald W. Light
March 2024
Mar 11, 2024
Feb 27, 2024
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A common cultural and political history, especially from 1883 to 1945, provides elements that inform comparisons between the post-war health care systems of East and West Germany. An early governmental “corporatist” structure through the Weimar period contained conflicts between physicians and sickness funds: Faustian deals in the Nazi years undid democratic medical institutions and ultimately physician rationality. The current central belief in the West that health is an individual-and physician-dominated-concern contrasts with the collective commitment-and state dominance-in the East. There is yet an interplay between and within the two systems around their respective strengths and weaknesses.
Author(s): Donald W. Light
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Volume 63, Issue 4 (pages 615–647) Published in 1985
