[Managed care, control of costs and the patient's health]

The following article aims at reviewing the main historical evolutions of the Managed Care in the United States of America. We will also try to gain a better understanding of the main ethical issues raised by the physicians in the Managed Care context. Those issues have raised important concerns among the population of physicians. Furthermore, we will try to describe some of the mechanisms that have been developed by the HMOs to reduce the costs of care in the U.S.A. Finally, we will see the side-effects of the measures that have been decided to reduce the cost of care and how they affect the quality of care delivered to patients.