The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act marked a watershed in U.S. health policy, but controversy over its passage rages on, and much uncertainty surrounds the law’s transformation from blueprint into operational program. How can the experience of other nations help us to reconcile the competing goals of universal coverage, cost control, and high quality care? Following an analysis of the 2010 statute, this book surveys developments in different parts of the globe to identify important lessons in health politics, policy design, and program implementation. A concluding chapter examines the issue of resistance to foreign remedies within the process of U.S. health reform.
This book assesses the impact of interest groups to determine if collectively they are capable of shaping policy in their own interests or whether they influence policy only at the margins.
Child abuse policy in the United States contains dangerous contradictions, which have only intensified as the public slowly accepted it as a middle class problem. One contradiction is the rapidly expanding child abuse industry (made up of enterprising psychotherapists and attorneys) which is consuming enormous resources, while thousands of poor children are seriously injured or killed, many while being "protected" by public agencies. This "rediscovery" has also led to the frenzied pursuit of offenders, resulting in the sacrifice of some innocent people. Moreover, the media's focus on the sensational details of high-visibility sexual abuse cases has helped to trivialize, if not commercialize, the child abuse problem. As such, child abuse has gone from a social problem to a social spectacle. By the 1980s the child welfare system had become a virtual "nonsystem," marked by a staggering turnover of staff, unmanageable caseloads, a severe shortage of funding, and caseloads composed of highly dysfunctional families (many with drug-related problems). To make room for these families, public agencies rationed services by increasingly screening-out child abuse reports which contained little likelihood of serious bodily harm. In The Politics of Child Abuse in America, the authors argue that child abuse must be viewed as a public safety problem. This redefinition would make it congruent with other family-based social trends, including the crackdown on domestic violence. Children must have the same legal protection currently extended to physically and sexually abused women. This can be done by creating a "Children's Authority," which would have the overall charge for protecting children. Specifically, Children's Authorities would have the responsibility for providing the six main functions of child protection: investigation, enforcement, placement services, prevention and education, family support, and research and development. Offering a unique perspective on the cold reality of this crisis, The Politics of Child Abuse in America will be a provocative work for social workers and human service personnel, as well as the general reader concerned with this timely issue.
Supramolecular chemistry provides a versatile approach for modifying the structure and function of surfaces, including the formation of clusters, monolayers and films. This can be used in a variety of applications from porous surface systems, to modifiers of interface energy and sensor-based systems. Supramolecular Chemistry at Surfaces covers different methods of preparing and studying self-assembled structures at surfaces and interfaces. The book starts with a general introduction concerning the nature of surfaces followed by specific sections discussing different techniques to characterise surface-based supramolecular systems. Each chapter then goes on to address different surface systems including the surface of water; physisorbed layers at interfaces; chemisorbed layers at interfaces; polyelectrolyte systems; thin films; dynamic systems; and patterning. Written by a leading expert in the field, this is the first book to give a multidisciplinary view of the supramolecular aspects of interfaces providing the reader with an objective summary of all the deposition methods and their characterisation. The book will appeal to students and researchers in supramolecular chemistry, nanoscience, polymer chemistry and physics, surface science and materials science.
The Law of Health Care Finance and Regulation is based on Part III, “Institutions, Providers, and the State,” of parent book Health Care Law and Ethics and adds additional coverage of a variety of issues that have shaped health care finance law. Integrating public health, financial and ethical issues, this casebook uses compelling case law, clear notes and comprehensive background information to illuminate the complex and dynamic field of health care law. Key Features: Based on material in Part III of the popular parent book, “Institutions, Providers, and the State,” along with coverage of duty to treat, hospital liability, managed care liability, and regulating access to drugs. Includes cases and material not found in the parent book on: • Judicial and administrative review of Medicare decisions. Certificate of need laws. Review immunity. Integrates public health and ethics issues and features clear notes that provide context, smooth transitions between cases, and background information. Website provides background materials, updates of important events, additional relevant topics and links to other resources on the Internet.
In the United States, few issues are more socially divisive than the location of hazardous waste facilities and other environmentally harmful enterprises. Do the negative impacts of such polluters fall disproportionately on African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian Americans? Environmental Injustices, Political Struggles discusses how political, economic, social, and cultural factors contribute to local government officials' consistent location of hazardous and toxic waste facilities in low-income neighborhoods and how, as a result, low-income groups suffer disproportionately from the regressive impacts of environmental policy. David E. Camacho's collection of essays examines the value-laden choices behind the public policy that determines placement of commercial environmental hazards, points to the underrepresentation of people of color in the policymaking process, and discusses the lack of public advocates representing low-income neighborhoods and communities. This book combines empirical evidence and case studies--from the failure to provide basic services to the "colonias" in El Paso County, Texas, to the race for water in Nevada--and covers in great detail the environmental dangers posed to minority communities, including the largely unexamined communities of Native Americans. The contributors call for cooperation between national environmental interest groups and local grassroots activism, more effective incentives and disincentives for polluters, and the adoption by policymakers of an alternative, rather than privileged, perspective that is more sensitive to the causes and consequences of environmental inequities. Environmental Injustices, Political Struggles is a unique collection for those interested in the environment, public policy, and civil rights as well as for students and scholars of political science, race and ethnicity, and urban and regional planning. Contributors. C. Richard Bath, Kate A. Berry, John G. Bretting, David E. Camacho, Jeanne Nienaber Clarke, Andrea K. Gerlak, Peter I. Longo, Diane-Michele Prindeville, Linda Robyn, Stephen Sandweiss, Janet M. Tanski, Mary M. Timney, Roberto E. Villarreal, Harvey L. White
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) contained a threat that any state refusing to set up a health insurance exchange would lose control to the federal government. Republicans had supported the concept before it became part of Obamacare, and so virtually every state was expected to cooperate and implement this core part of the law through which millions would receive financial assistance to buy health insurance. However, 34 states refused to participate, using their flexibility as an opportunity to try to bring down the entire law. This is a stunning miscalculation by the Obama administration. This book tells the story of what happened in the final two states to choose state control (Idaho and New Mexico) and the two that came the closest but did not (Michigan and Mississippi). Contrary to how it is typically described in the media, the most intense split was not between Republicans and Democrats, but within the Republican Party. Governors were the most important people in the fight over exchanges, but did not always get their way. The Tea Party was amazingly successful at defeating the most powerful interest groups. State-level and national conservative think tanks were important allies to the Tea Party. The relative power of these groups was shaped by differences in institutional design and procedures, such as whether a state has term limits and the length of legislative sessions. Opposition was more easily overcome in states whose conditions facilitated the development of legislative "pockets of expertise." This is a dramatic example of opponents using federalism to block national reform and serves as a warning of the challenge of inducing state cooperation in other policy domains such as the environment and education.
Corona, the Lockdown, and the Media investigates media influence on policies to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Bernhagen and Kybelka propose that news reporting on the pandemic pitches human impact against economic consequences of the virus and of restrictive policy measures designed to contain it. They argue that the use of these frames influences governments’ decisions to enact or lift lockdown measures. Using time series data from England, France, and Germany, the authors show that news reporting on COVID-19 was indeed characterized by these media frames. However, there is no evidence of media influence on government policy. Instead, the authors find that anti-pandemic policy decisions were responsive to public opinion in these countries.
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