The distinctive mixing and continuous remixing of public and private roles is a defining feature of health care in the United States. The Public-Private Health Care State explores the interweaving of public and private enterprise in health care in the United States as a basis for thinking about health care in terms of its history and its continuing evolution today. Historian and policy analyst Rosemary Stevens has selected and edited seventeen essays from both her published and unpublished work to illustrate continuing themes, such as: the flexible meanings of the terms "public" and "private," and how useful their ambiguity has been and is; the role of ideology as ratifying rather than preordaining change; and the common behavior of public leaders and corporate entities in the face of fiscal opportunity. The topics--covering the period of 1870 through the twenty-first century--represent Stevens' research interests in hospital history and policy, the medical profession, government policy, and paying for health care. The volume also considers her involvement with policy questions, which include health services research, health maintenance organizations, and physician workforce policy. Section I demonstrates the long history of state government involvement with private not-for-profit hospitals from the 1870s through the 1930s. Section II examines the federal role in health care from the 1920s through the 1970s, including the establishment of veterans' hospitals and the implementation of Medicaid. Section III shows how shifting governmental roles require constantly changing organizing rhetoric, whether for inventing a federal role for health services research and HMOs, "regionalization" in the 1970s, or defining civil rights and "equity" as mobilizing vehicles in the 1980s. Section IV examines growing concerns from the 1970s through the present about the traditional "public" role of the largely "private" medical profession. Section V returns to the ambiguous public-private status of not-for profit hospitals, buffeted in the 1980s and 1990s by assumptions about the efficiency of the market.

Winner of the CBHL Award of Excellence California is one of the most ecologically rich and diverse regions of North America, and home to hundreds of species of mushrooms. In California Mushrooms, mycologist experts Dennis Desjardin, Michael Wood, and Fred Stevens provide over 1100 species profiles, including comprehensive descriptions and spectacular photographs. Each profile includes information on macro- and micromorphology, habitat, edibility, and comparisons with closely related species and potential look-alikes. Although the focus of the book is on mushrooms of California, over 90% of the species treated occur elsewhere, making the book useful throughout western North America. This complete reference covers everything necessary for the mushroom hunter to accurately identify over 650 species.

The present study was undertaken for three reasons: Medicaid is a vital program-in the early 1970s it provided care for over one tenth of the American population. It is a huge program-in the same period it consumed over nine billion dollars of public funds. And Medicaid is, in many ways, the most direct involvement with the provision of medical care undertaken by either the federal government or the states. But until the publication of this book, Medicaid had not been studied in depth or in a systematic way. Welfare Medicine in America is the complete history of Medicaid. The authors carefully examine the program's historical antecedents, its strengths, and its weaknesses. In part one, "The Coming of Medicaid," the hows and whys of the establishment of Medicaid are discussed, as are the basic provisions of the program. In part two, "The Euphoric Demise: July 1965-January 1968," the focus is on how Medicaid is administered in the states. In part three, "The Storm: January 1968-July 1970," specific amendments to Medicaid, the costs involved, and other health programs are examined. And in part four, "Benign Neglect: July 1970-June 1973," the role of the courts in administering Medicaid, and its future, are the primary subjects. This history of Medicare, however, goes beyond the specific government program itself and offers a paradigm for inquiring into the problems of medical care in general and the nature and limitations of public medical services. Welfare Medicine in America is a profound analysis of Medicaid and welfare systems, and will be of great use to policymakers, students of welfare and government, and to those working within the medical profession.

Since the late 1980s welfare policies in France and the United States have increasingly been shaped by a strong emphasis on citizens' obligations to work and be independent, and a weakening of entitlements to income maintenance. Throughout the advanced industrialized nations, welfare reforms incorporate work-oriented measures such as financial incentives, insertion contracts, training, and requirements to search for and accept jobs. The evidence in this volume suggests that while the details may vary, welfare reforms in France and the United States have more in common than is often acknowledged. Welfare Reform provides an in-depth analysis of the development and structure of modern welfare programs and how they function. The dynamics of welfare reform are illuminated by focusing on two programs: the Revenu Minimum d'Insertion in France and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in the United States. Taking various analytic approaches, contributors examine the relations between poverty and work, how U.S. and French models of income support have been transformed in recent times, the relative impacts of economic growth and policy reforms on rates of welfare participation, and what happens to recipients who leave the welfare rolls. Welfare Reform will help researchers and policymakers gain perspective on where they are headed and how best to get there as they journey down the highway of welfare reform. Neil Gilbert is Chernin Professor of Social Welfare at the School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley, and co-director of the Center for Child and Youth Policy (CCYP). His numerous publications include 25 books and over 100 articles that have appeared in The Public Interest, Society, Commentary, and other leading academic journals. Antoine Parent is associate professor of economics at the University of Paris 8, associate researcher at MATISSE, University of Paris 1--Sorbonne, and research program manager at the Research Division of the French Ministry of Social Affairs.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Traces the history of "Jim Crow" laws and the most important court decisions concerning them from 1896 to the present.

Health care delivery in the United States is an enormously complex enterprise, and its $1.6 trillion annual expenditures involve a host of competing interests. While arguably the nation offers among the most technologically advanced medical care in the world, the American system consistently under performs relative to its resources. Gaps in financing and service delivery pose major barriers to improving health, reducing disparities, achieving universal insurance coverage, enhancing quality, controlling costs, and meeting the needs of patients and families. Bringing together twenty-five of the nation’s leading experts in health care policy and public health, this book provides a much-needed perspective on how our health care system evolved, why we face the challenges that we do, and why reform is so difficult to achieve. The essays tackle tough issues including: socioeconomic disadvantage, tobacco, obesity, gun violence, insurance gaps, the rationing of services, the power of special interests, medical errors, and the nursing shortage. Linking the nation’s health problems to larger political, cultural, and philosophical contexts, Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care offers a compelling look at where we stand and where we need to be headed.