Putting Health Care On The National Agenda

This revised edition of Arnold BirenbauM's important book brings the work up to date through the end of 1994 and the close of the 103rd Congress. It offers a comprehensive, provocative, and completely new assessment of health care reform with a focus on financing and coverage. A fine primer...on the health care debate (JAMA), the book examines such topics as the changing doctor-patient relationship, the growth of managed care, the rise and decline of hospitals, American business and health benefits, and the uninsured in America.

This new edition takes particular heed to the failure of health care reform in 1994. In responding to the first edition, Victor Sidel, M.D., former president of the American Public Health Association, called it, A wonderfully far-ranging, meticulously documented, insightfully analyzed and remarkably well written challenge to professionals, patients, and community members to work for effective change in a bizarre, expensive, inefficient, and often unresponsive medical care system.

Review: ?Birenbaum directly confronts the reader wit the deteriorating health-care system in the US and the tough choices that will have to be made in the future before a total collapse occurs in the not-too-distant future. The book is well written and avoids the pitfalls that could trap the author in cliches and hyper-speculation.

The review of the current system is detailed and takes great care to explain to the reader how we got where we are now in health-care. In the second section, current needs are examined with emphasis on long-term care, AIDS, and the right to die. The final section provides a comparison with the Canadian system and explains the consequences of not beginning health-care reform now.

Useful in health-care management and administration studies.?-Choice