Today's HMOs come into a great deal of criticism, yet few people understand their inner workings. This book describes how they operate and why they elicit such criticism. Written with the general public in mind, it gives an overview of the current situation, a history of the HMO industry and how they function, how the federal government got involved, how and why the early models failed, how the large for-profit HMOs entered the picture and how they work, and their impact on the national health care scene. It also presents recommendations on what should be done to provide consumer protection. Finally, it gives users and potential users recommendations, and physicians and other health care provider's recommendations, before becoming involved with HMOs.