The New Politics of State Health Policy

Book Overview

With the collapse of national health care reform efforts in the early 1990s, states emerged as a focal point for new policy and administrative developments in U.S. health care. This book provides a timely overview of the key issues facing states as they have responded to this challenge. It tells how states are making decisions about health policies and then putting them into action--and how legislatures, executives, courts, and bureaucracies all participate in this process.

The New Politics of State Health Policy describes many of the major trends in states' responses to health care problems of the 1990s, and it identifies the forces that will influence state policy actions in the new century. It examines reforms now under way, from Medicaid to tobacco control to mental health, and addresses today's most pressing issues surrounding managed care, health insurance, and public health administration.

Editors Hackey and Rochefort have brought together a distinguished group of scholars and practitioners in the field of health policy analysis. Frank Thompson, Theodore Marmor, Michael Dukakis, and others map out the different institutional frames shaping how each state approaches the health care domain. While some states deliberate over universal coverage, others have shifted to the county level decisions once made in Washington, D.C. But all face the difficulty of taking on unprecedented responsibilities with limited resources amid the often-conflicting concerns of public management and "moral politics."

Each contribution in the volume explores the interplay between state governance and health care policy by addressing four themes: the capacity of states to fulfill their new health care roles, the significance of recent policy changes, patterns in the politics of state health policy making, and the relationship of state-level changes to failed national health care reform. Together, they sound the call for stronger partnerships with both federal agencies and private sector organizations and the need for state officials to engage in broader, "outside-the-box" thinking.

As these essays show, health care policy can only be as good as the governments that make it. The New Politics of State Health Policy can help scholars, researchers, and practitioners better assess the programs and policy process in their own states in order to meet the demands of the health care marketplace on the one hand and public expectations on the other.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0700610855
• ISBN13: 9780700610853
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Finally, State Health Policy is Recognized

I am now a happy man. Finally somebody has recognized the critical role state governments play in American health care. Too often researchers are drawn to the federal role, missing the powerful and quickly changing role of states in the development, financing, and delivery of health programs. This is a compelling, insightful discussion of the evolving role of states in American health policy. It also successfully deals with the tremendous variation in the health policy approaches of states and the variation in their respective capacities for change.To be honest, as a former state Medicaid director and state health commissioner, I have found few academics who understand state government. However, these authors for the most part grasp the complex nature of health politics and policy in the states. They should be congratulated for their insight.