This book describes and evaluates power and influence in the creation, administration, and distribution of health care in the United States. His work is uniquely concerned with distributive justice as well as power. Who ought to receive more (or less) health care? How should we decide these distributions? Such questions are addressed in works of philosophy with little attention to political, legal, and economic analysis of budget dilemmas, professional and industrial politics, and technology. This volume takes the issue a step further by placing health policy issues in the broader context of American politics, illuminating the conflict between health resources and other needs, and evaluating the trade offs.