Debates on U.S. Health Care

Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld is a professor in the Sociology Program in the School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University. Her research areas are medical sociology and aging and the life course with a special focus on health policy, health care utilization, and health behavior. She has recently published Medicare by Greenwood Press (2011) and serves as the editor of the research annual Research in the Sociology of Health and Health Care published each year by Emerald Press. She is co-editor of Health and Associate Editor In Chief of American Journal of Health Promotion. Her current research interests in addition to health policy include research on gender and health, and research on aspects of obesity as linked to social factors. Wendy E. Parmet is George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Northeastern University School of Law, where she is also Director of the Program on Health Policy and Law. She is the author of Populations, Public Health, and the Law, published by Georgetown University Press in 2009 and with Professor Patricia Illingworth, Ethical Health Care, published by Prentice Hall in 2005, as well as numerous articles in medical, legal, and public policy journals on public health law, health care access, bioethics, and disability law. Professor Parmet has served as counsel on several major court cases involving health care access. She received her JD from Harvard Law School and her BA from Cornell University. Mark A. Zezza, PhD, currently works at the Commonwealth Fund as a Senior Policy Analyst. His main issues of interest relate to payment and delivery system reform, with a focus on the development of accountable care organizations. Dr. Zezza joined the Commonwealth Fund from the Engelberg Center for Healthcare Reform at the Brookings Institution, where he managed projects evaluating and providing implementation support to health-reform initiatives on accountability payment models, health information technology, and quality measurements. Prior to Brookings, Dr. Zezza was Associate Director at the Lewin Group, working as a member of the State Healthcare Reform team to analyze the economic and coverage effects of various reform proposals. From July 1999 through 2006, Dr. Zezza worked at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services analyzing and helping to operationalize various Medicare payment systems. He holds a BS in Math and Psychology from Dickinson College, an MA in Economic Policy Analysis from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a PhD in Public Policy from the same institution.

Philosophical, Political, and Legal Debates Introduction Foundational Debates Moral Significance of Health Care Health Care and Human Health Health Care as a Human Right Individual Responsibility for Health The Role of the Market in Health Care Racial Disparities in Health Status and Accessing Health Care Single-Payer Health Care System Health Care Reform Debates Public Opinion and Health Care Reform States' Rights and Health Care Reform Liberty and the Individual Mandate Federal Authority Over the Individual Mandate Underserved Communities and Health Care Reform Abortion and Reproductive Health Services Reforming Medical Malpractice Liability Economic and Fiscal Debates Introduction Expanding Coverage Individual Mandate Insurance Regulation Insurance Exchanges Employer Mandate Paying for Reform and Bending the Cost Curve Deficit Reduction Tax Treatment of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Taxing High-Cost (Cadillac) Plans Price Transparency Accountable Care Organizations Independent Payments Advisory Board Medicare Negotiation of Drug Pricing Medicaid Program Flexibility Quality Debates Introduction Providers and Quality Primary Care Nurse Practitioners and Physicians' Assistants Female Physicians Ethnic Background of Physicians and Patients Home Care Treatment Methods and Quality Centralized Versus Decentralized Control Comparative Effectiveness Research Information Technology Adoption Cost and Quality Medicare Benefit Cuts High-Deductible Health Insurance Plans

Debates on U.S. Healthcare would be a valuable addition to public libraries and academic libraries. It would benefit students, researchers, voters, and anyone else interested in gaining a better understanding of health-care reform in the U.S. would be a valuable addition to public libraries and academic libraries. It would benefit students, researchers, voters, and anyone else interested in gaining a better understanding of health-care reform in the U.S. -- Booklist It focuses less on policy, which may become dated, and more on the philosophies behind the health care debate. It would be an excellent addition to any library serving an undergraduate population. -- CHOICE Will be of interest to public, special, and academic libraries interested in health care reform, including those with a focus on medical economics, ethics, and social services. -- Laurie Selwyn * Library Journal *