Who cares what care?: an inverse interest law?

The paper attempts to systematise some of the ideas on medical dominance as the inverse interest law, which is broadly seen as the more commonplace the problem and the more people affected, the less will be the medical interest. The law or rather laws are exemplified by reference to the symptom iceberg, health education and welfare, hospital expenditure, priority groups and community care and class, locality and ethnicity. The inverse interest laws, which ensure the operation of the inverse care law, are seen as products of medicine definition and practice in relation to their containing society.