History and Health Policy in the United States

by Stevens, Rosemary A.; Rosenberg, Charles E.; Burns, Lawton R.

• ISBN13: 9780813538372
• ISBN10: 0813538378
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-07-25
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

In our rapidly advancing scientific and technological world, many take great pride and comfort in believing that we are on the threshold of new ways of thinking, living, and understanding ourselves. But despite dramatic discoveries that appear in every way to herald the future, legacies still carry great weight. Even in swiftly developing fields such as health and medicine, most systems and policies embody a sequence of earlier ideas and preexisting patterns. In History and Health Policy in the United States, seventeen leading scholars of history, the history of medicine, bioethics, law, health policy, sociology, and organizational theory make the case for the usefulness of history in evaluating and formulating health policy today. In looking at issues as varied as the consumer economy, risk, and the plight of the uninsured, the contributors uncover the often unstated assumptions that shape the way we think about technology, the role of government, and contemporary medicine. They show how historical perspectives can help policymakers avoid the pitfalls of partisan, outdated, or merely fashionable approaches, as well as how knowledge of previous systems can offer alternatives when policy directions seem unclear. Together, the essays argue that it is only by knowing where we have been that we can begin to understand health services today or speculate on policies for tomorrow.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
David Mechanic
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(12)
Rosemary A. Stevens
Part I Actors and Interpretations
Chapter 1 Anticipated Consequences: Historians, History, and Health Policy	13	(19)
Charles E. Rosenberg
Chapter 2 The More Things Stay the Same the More They Change: The Odd Interplay between Government and Ideology in the Recent Political History of the U.S. Health-Care System	32	(17)
Lawrence D. Brown
Chapter 3 Medical Specialization as American Health Policy: Interweaving Public and Private Roles	49	(34)
Rosemary A. Stevens
Part II Rhetoric, Rights, Responsibilities
Chapter 4 Patients or Health-Care Consumers? Why the History of Contested Terms Matters	83	(28)
Nancy Tomes
Chapter 5 The Democratization of Privacy: Public-Health Surveillance and Changing Conceptions of Privacy in Twentieth-Century America	111	(19)
Amy L. Fairchild
Chapter 6 Building a Toxic Environment: Historical Controversies over the Past and Future of Public Health	130	(23)
Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner
Part III Priorities and Politics
Chapter 7 Situating Health Risks: An Opportunity for Disease-Prevention Policy	153	(23)
Robert A. Aronowitz
Chapter 8 The Jewel in the Federal Crown? History, Politics, and the National Institutes of Health	176	(26)
Robert Cook-Deegan and Michael McGeary
Chapter 9 A Marriage of Convenience: The Persistent and Changing Relationship between Long-Term Care and Medicaid	202	(27)
Colleen M. Grogan
Part IV Policy Management and Results
Chapter 10 Rhetoric, Realities, and the Plight of the Mentally Ill in America	229	(21)
David Mechanic and Gerald N. Grob
Chapter 11 Emergency Rooms: The Reluctant Safety Net	250	(23)
Beatrix Hoffman
Chapter 12 Policy Implications of Hospital System Failures: The Allegheny Bankruptcy	273	(36)
Lawton R. Burns and Alexandra P. Burns
Chapter 13 The Rise and Decline of the HMO: A Chapter in U.S. Health-Policy History	309	(32)
Bradford H. Gray
Contributors	341	(4)
Index	345