Experts agree–the U.S. has achieved the most technologically advanced medical care system in the world and it provides the highest quality, most comprehensive medical education available. Can we conclude that our health care system is one of America′s success stories? It appears–we cannot. However, amid growing concern over our health care system, there is far less agreement on what to do about it. Jennie Kronenfeld addresses major health care controversies confronting American society, health care professionals, and policymakers. This intriguing book focuses on the overlapping area between policy sciences and health care studies, particularly the cost, access, and quality of health care. Kronenfeld discusses whether our system can solve its problems, or whether we have a health care ‘system’ at all. Do we have a national health care ‘policy, ‘ or a web of state, county, and city policies? And, what of fundamental changes being adopted in the midst of the controversies surrounding reproductive health and abortion, mental health and behavioral health, disease patterns/physical health/AIDS, aging and long-term care, as well as the professions and facilities who provide care? A provocative examination of these important issues, Controversial Issues in Health Care Policy is essential reading for students of policy studies, health services, and sociology, as well as for policymakers, and health care professionals.
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Introduction
Disease Patterns, Physical Health and AIDS
Mental Health Concerns and Behavioral Health
Reproductive Health Concerns and Abortion
Aging and Long-Term Care
Providers of Care
Health Professions and Health Facilities
Costs of Health Care
Quality of Health Care Technology
Access to Health Care Services and Suggestions for Health Care Reform
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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.