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In this paper a behavioral model consisting of sociodemographic, economic, ecological, need, and social psychological variables is developed and used to account for differential patterns of health and illness behavior among members of a pre paid medical group. Data from a sample of students who were enrolled in a university health plan were used to estimate parameters of structural equation models for males and females. The model suggests that social-psychological factors, such as symptom sensitivity and students' appraisal of the services provided, affect the extent to which they seek outside medical care. While medical need and insurance coverage both directly affect the choice of health services, sociodemographic and ecological factors appear largely to affect utilization indirectly through their effect on intervening social-psychological variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some findings from a sample survey dealing with bases of choice between Blue Cross-Blue Shield Comprehensive Plan and Community Health Association group practice plan by auto workers in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. Two independent probability samples were drawn to represent the choice groups, and different sampling rates were utilized to equalize sample sizes for group comparisons. Analysis focuses on such factors as selectivity in the type of people who are drawn to group practice; differences in desire for extension of coverage: and association of choice with frequency and intensity of perceived features of health plans. A major conclusion of the study is that most persons selected their plan on the basis of pragmatic and specific rather than ideological and general criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on studies by researchers at the Princeton University regarding labor and industrial relations in 1974. An investigation on the effect of manpower training programs on trainee earnings is being conducted by Orley Ashenfelter. The manuscript "The Human Nature of Organizations," by J. Douglas Brown focuses on the basic principles of industrial relations policy. Richard Lester is preparing a manuscript on the impact of equal employment opportunity legislation on the faculty and administrators in universities. Herman Somers is involved in a study of Canadian national health insurance as part of a long-term study of foreign health care systems. Yoram Weiss is completing two papers on the effect of risk on educational and occupational choice.

The relative importance of the determinants of physician utilization was examined using data obtained from a community health survey of 2,168 households in five New York and Pennsylvania counties. Eighteen variables, including individual and organizational attributes, were selected to determine the causal ordering of these variables in predicting use of physicians' services. It was found that the need for care, average cost per visit, health insurance coverage, and age have strong direct effects on physician utilization. The other variables had either an indirect or a negligible influence. The path analysis employed in this study reveals the great potential contribution of sociological methods in health services research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the health insurance movement, the provision of drugs has been one of the medical needs least well met. One prepaid medical care plan has pioneered in an effort to meet this need, and its precise experience is reported in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with a strike ordered by the National Federation of Physicians' Unions in Belgium in 1964. The strike started because of the failure of the government and the medical corps to agree on reforms in the Belgian sickness insurance program requested by the union. The causes of the financial difficulties involved in the program include an increase in the number of beneficiaries and additional allowances for drugs and hospital care. Two events in 1961 have increased the tension between the medical corps and its adversaries. Then a number of Belgian doctors cooperated with the Federation to conduct the strike.

As this note is being written, a proposal to provide health insurance to retired workers under Social Security—the Forand bill—is being vigorously debated. Although health care for such workers involves some special considerations, the arguments of the proponents of this bill and the massive support being marshalled for its passage are symptomatic of general concern over voluntary health insurance. The dilemma threatening the survival of many of these voluntary programs is that costs tend to outstrip their ability to provide the quantity and quality of health care demanded by the groups they serve. In this discussion, the authors attempt to identify the major problems currently at issue in voluntary health insurance and to describe and appraise some administrative innovations that have been made in a few instances to control costs and improve the quality of medical and hospital care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests the utility of distinguishing the primary from the secondary symptomresponse decisions made by students and members of other prepaid medical groups. A model relating factors that affect the secondary symptom-response decision in the illness behavior of students has been developed and subjected to an empirical test. While some of the deviations observed in the data may not be accounted for by the model, the data provide support for the general predictions flowing from it. Attempts have been made to account for the observed deviations, and future tests of the more refilled implications of the proposed theoretical model have been suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of disability-benefits applicants are used to explore the relationship between socioeconomic status and illness. Two possibilities are pursued: (1) that illness level varies by status and (2) that subjective responses about illness vary by status. No substantial linear association was obtained in either case. There was, however, a slight positive association between socioeconomic status and indicators of both self-perceived functional and self-perceived social limitations. Only the latter was relatively undisturbed when the actual level of limitations was controlled. These data do not reveal a pronounced influence of status on either illness levels or illness behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attitudes involving a social triad composed of the individual as a recipient of social influence, an organization as the source of this influence, and a medical care program as the object of this influence tend toward balance. However, individuals do not perceive influence attempts by the organization in such a way as to generate consonance-dissonance processes. This conclusion is supported by an analysis of data on a sample of members of the UAW who were offered a choice of health care plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]