History and health policy in the United States : putting the past back in / edited by Rosemary A. Stevens, Charles E. Rosenberg, and Lawton R. Burns.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Stevens, Rosemary, 1935-

Rosenberg, Charles E.

Burns, Lawton R.

Series:

Critical issues in health and medicine.

Critical issues in health and medicine

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medical policy--United States--History.

Medical policy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (376 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

History & health policy in the United States

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

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 They show how historical perspectives can help policymakers avoid the pitfalls of partisan, outdated, or merely fashionable approaches, as well as how knowledge of previous systems can offer alternatives when policy directions seem unclear.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.

Contents:

Anticipated consequences : historians, history, and health policy / Charles E. Rosenberg

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 / Lawrence D. Brown

Medical specialization as American health policy : interweaving public and private roles / Rosemary A. Stevens

Patients or health-care consumers? Why the history of contested terms matters / Nancy Tomes

The democratization of privacy : public-health surveillance and changing conceptions of privacy in twentieth-century America / Amy L. Fairchild

Building a toxic environment : historical controversies over the past and future of public health / Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner

Situating health risks : an opportunity for disease-prevention policy / Robert A. Aronowitz

The jewel in the federal crown? History, politics, and the National Institutes of Health / Robert Cook-Deegan and Michael McGeary

A marriage of convenience : the persistent and changing relationship between long-term care and Medicaid / Colleen M. Grogan

Rhetoric, realities, and the plight of the mentally ill in America / David Mechanic and Gerald N. Grob

Emergency rooms : the reluctant safety net / Beatrix Hoffman

Policy implications of hospital system failures : the Allegheny bankruptcy / Lawton R. Burns and Alexandra P. Burns

The rise and decline of the HMO : a chapter in U.S. health-policy history / Bradford H. Gray.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-13359-4

0-8135-3987-0

OCLC:

799766908