Community health and reform in Hong Kong

In this paper I argue that the health crisis in the underdeveloped world today is not primarily one of shortages of services, but is a result of lack of power and control over economic, political and social institutions by the majority of the population. Hong Kong is presented as a case study in which a plural medical system is dominated by a political economy that shapes patterns of both sickness and health care. As an advanced capitalist colony, a financial center for the Pacific Basin, and a neutral area for China's foreign negotiations, social policies in Hong Kong aim at promoting business growth, often at the expense of the health of the population. Further, government and voluntary agencies attempts at reforming the health system have done little more than further solidify biomedicine and its social relations. Finally an attempt is made to define potential vehicles for change.