Disputas inter-capitalistas, biomedicalización y modelo médico hegemónico

Abstract

This paper is situated on the field of study of the working/productive process and the technological transition in health care. It examines the entrance of financial capital groups in the health sector and their struggles with the medical-industrial complex. It puts forward a comprehension of how the capitalist sectors, leaders of the restructuration of the working process in health, bet on the power of the creation of new subjectivities in order to transform and consolidate the current hegemonic medical model and the production/reproduction of the ways of the capitalism's agency role. We use the concept of biomedicalization to understand a radical stage of medicalization, a commonly used concept, albeit insufficient to understand the observed changes. The comprehension of these phenomena allows the recognition of resistances and "lines of flight" that could allow for nonmercantilist options in health, which may create autonomy and reinforce the value of individual and collective life.Keywords: Medical-industrial-financial complex. Hegemonic medical model. Biomedicalization.Resistances and creation of new subjectivities. Market and health. Introduction COMUNICAÇÃO SAÚDE EDUCAÇÃO 2017; 21(63):1005-16Public debates and regulatory policies related to health sector reforms revolve predominantly around financing, cost control, and cost-effectiveness. The reforms under debate and those implemented are variations of health insurance or social security models based on public, private or mixed financing, as well as regarding who are those managing these funds and providing services (government agencies, private administrators or mixed forms). The roles of the various actors in the definition of health care models are scarcely analyzed, despite the fact that these roles determine the conceptualization of the healthillness-care process and therefore, the type of individual care and collective health programs implemented, who are the providers, how these programs and services are funded, and which are the populations served.There are exceptions and perhaps the most notorious ones comes from the Brazilian studies analyzing the process of producing health care and its technological transition, emphasizing the effects on the creation of new subjectivities related to the health-illnesscare process. 1 Many of these analyzes focus on the role of health care workers in their capacity to produce living work in act, which can generate new forms of caring for individuals and groups, or its opposite, to deepen capitalistic forms when producing medical and public health interventions. These analyzes, as well as our research on the financialization of the health sector, operating since the 1980s, which has resulted in the formation of the medical-industrial-financial complex, serve as a framework for this article. 2 The formation of the medical-industrial-financial complex refers to the penetration of the financial capital as an administrator not only of medical insurance, but also of health care services (hospitals, dialysis centers, h...

Kangaroo Mother Care in Colombia: A Subaltern Health Innovation against For‐profit Biomedicine

“…KMC advocates would agree with the comments from the editor of JAMA Pediatrics who stated that such overuse might depend to a great extent on the influence of incentives created by market forces, given that “[t]he amount of money to be made by providing more care is much, much larger than the amount gained by providing usual care” (Carroll , 812). So long as the premium of the health care policy can be renegotiated or other cost‐recovery mechanisms can be established, pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies can keep on introducing new products or expanding the use of existing ones (Iriart and Merhy ).…”

“…Several scholars have explored how pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have shaped health care in both the center and periphery of biomedical capitalism (Dumit ; Peterson ; Sunder Rajan ). Furthermore, everyday practices of medical care, medical pluralism, and accountability in health, once dominated by science logics (Menéndez ), are being reshaped by the for‐profit demands of new players in global health: lenders and donors, monitoring national and international bodies, health corporations, and insurance sectors (Adams ; Erikson ; Iriart and Merhy ; Sunder Rajan ).…”

Máquinas y arte-sanos

“…Prestaciones que, hasta entonces, eran proporcionadas por instituciones sin fines de lucro, profesionales de manera individual o formaban parte de prácticas culturales de los grupos familiares (25) . El concepto de complejo médico industrial pasa a ser denominado, posteriormente, como complejo médico-industrial-financiero o complejo médico-financiero (99,100,101,102,103) .…”

Medicina biotecnológica e o fenômeno da (bio)medicalização: tensões e disputas no campo das práticas de cuidado em saúde

“…No contexto da biomedicalização, os médicos já não hegemonizam como antes o processo do cuidado compartilhando o exercício do poder e do governo da conduta com outros "centros de poder" que se localizam em locais díspares, como o complexo médico-industrial, as farmacêuticas, o aparato biotecnológico e "centros" que exercem seu poder a partir de interesses e desejos de consumidores e/ou cidadãos 1,2,7 . Nesse processo, os médicos permanecem tendo um papel simbólico de autoridade e expertise, porém, seu lugar social vai sendo paulatinamente modificado, dividindo suas antigas atribuições com outras profissões da saúde e, mais do que isto, com experts como biólogos, químicos, matemáticos e engenheiros.…”