Health Care Politics, Policy, and Services: A Social Justice Analysis - Tapa dura

Who has a right to health care? How can the idea of Social Justice inform health care? What are the roles of government and personal responsibility toward providing health care? Can we reform the U.S. health care system? These issues are often debated in health care policy or public health courses, yet without the proper knowledge of the true structure of the U.S. health care system or the various social justice models that can inform change. According to the President's New Freedom Commission, our social and public health workers are ill-prepared to address the issues faced in direct healthcare practice, precisely because they are under informed in these areas. In this innovative text, accessible to those in health care policy, social work, public policy, nursing, or public administration, the author provides all the tools necessary to launch a successful attack on what most see as an inadequate health care policy. No other book addresses the evolution of the U.S. health care system alongside clear explanations of the social justice models we can use to re-route that evolution. From the beginnings of health care and how the federal government became involved, we descend into the "belly of the beast" to examine its policy development and application, cost-containment and risk assessment concerns, care for the elderly, and developing disparities in health and health care.

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Designated a Doody's Core Title!

Winner of an AJN Book of the Year Award!

• Who Has a Right to Health Care?
• What Is the Government's Role in Providing Accessible Health Care?
• How Are Corporations, Insurance Companies, and Health Care Providers Affecting the Quality of Health Care?
• And, Most Importantly, Can We Reform the U.S. Health Care System?

We often debate these issues in health care policy or public health courses, yet we do so without the proper knowledge of the underlying structure of the U.S. health care system--or a framework by which it can be judged. Many health care workers entering the system are ill-equipped to address the issues faced in direct health care practice, in part because they have no ability to evaluate it.

In this innovative text, Gunnar Almgren provides all the tools necessary to understand and critique a health care policy in dire need of change. First, he describes the historical evolution of U.S. health care, explaining how the early roles of hospitals, doctors, and nurses still influence today's system. He explains the complex financial aspects of health care, including the concerns of all its major stakeholders. He looks at the government's role in regulating and funding health care, and how that role has expanded and contracted through various political administrations. An entire chapter describes the facilities and services available for the elderly--an issue that will continue to rise in importance as America ages. Finally, he examines the many causes of disparities in the U.S. health care system.

In addition, Almgren offers a unique social justice analysis as a framework by which the current system--and proposed reforms--can be judged. By analyzing the health care system through various models of social justice, we can begin to understand and address the urgent issues of economic, racial, and geographic disparities that plague our current system.

With its clear, thorough, and comprehensive coverage of U.S. health care, this unique text is accessible to all those in public health, nursing, social work, public policy, or public administration. No other book addresses the underlying issues of the U.S. health care system alongside a variety of social justice models that we can use to evaluate, and perhaps eventually, change it. "