This book analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed by the four Democratic presidents, Truman, Johnson, Clinton and Obama, who tried to expand access to and affordability of healthcare in the United States. It considers how they made such arguments, the ethics they advanced, and the vision of America they espoused. The author combines rhetoric analysis, policy analysis, and policy history to illuminate the dynamic nature of the way American presidents have imagined the moral and social bonds of the American people and their exhortations for governance and policy to reflect and honor these bonds and obligations. Schimmel illustrates how Democratic presidents invoke positive liberty and communitarian values in direct challenge to opposing conservative ideologies of limited government and prioritization of negative liberty and their increasing prominence in the post-Reagan era. He also draws attention to the ethical and policy compromises entailed by the usage of specific rhetorical strategies and their resulting discursive effects.

In this readable and well-researched book, Ken Terry analyzes the current state of health care reform and finds it wanting. Instead of tackling the core problems in our failing system, he argues, politicians, insurance executives, and health care leaders have embraced ideologically driven initiatives that pursue impractical objectives or will take too long to bear fruit. Among these are such widely hailed trends as disease management, pay for performance, cost and price ìtransparency, î consumer-directed care, and health information technology, none of which will reverse the rising tide of health spending. What is creating this nightmare scenario, according to Terry, is the sheer profitability of the health care industry. Insurers, physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and device manufacturers are all striving to maximize their profits, and there is no effective competition or regulation to restrain them. Only a complete overhaul of our system for financing and delivering health care can get us out of this mess, the author maintains. In the second half of his book, he presents a bold vision of how to do this: First, he says, all primary care physicians should join group practices that are large enough to take financial responsibility for professional services. And second, competition among those physician groups, based on cost and quality, should replace competition among health plans. There should be only one government-regulated insurer per region, he says, and it should have no role in managing care.

Named a 2013 Doody's Core Title! "With great timing, the editors of Rights-Based Approaches to Public Health offer a targeted and innovative strategy to combat global health problems. Balanced, comprehensive, and steeped in the historical traditions of human rights, the book persuasively moves the reader from abstract conceptions of inalienable human rights to evidence-based, pragmatic solutions that highlight the systematic integration of human rights principles in human development work."--PsycCRITIQUES "The human rights framework as eloquently described in this book offers a new way for us to think about how we approach our work: from deciding when and how to intervene, to how we plan, the goals we establish, and the metrics we use to gauge the success of our efforts. Public health instructors will find many of the chapters useful for illustrating, in very concrete ways, the link between human rights and public health, providing students (and practitioners) with a new framework for analyzing public health topics and for designing and evaluating interventions. Ultimately, civil rights and civil liberties are only of value when exercised. This book will contribute to the advance of human rights by leading increasing numbers of public health practitioners to advocate for, and promote, their realization."Score: 95, 4 stars --Doody's Medical Reviews "Rights Based Approaches to Public Health provides a new perspective on addressing public health problems. It is an evidence based and cutting edge approach that provides important insights into solving ethical dilemmas. It is essential reading for anyone interested in ensuring health equity and justice." Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, FACEP Executive Director of the American Public Health Association "At root, those working in health and human rights are both animated by a similar concern: the well-being of individuals and populations. The book will be an invaluable asset to both communities as they work to achieve their common goal." From the foreword by Paul Hunt UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (2002-2008) Rights-Based Approaches to Public Health presents a variety of public health professionals who utilize rights-based approaches in their work, the challenges they face, and the lessons they have learned. This expansive volume includes rights-based approaches with a variety of populations and across international settings. It explores environmental issues such as the right to clean air, water, and food. It examines the rights of the vulnerable, including women and children. It also includes work in difficult locations, such as prisons, high-conflict areas, and New Orleans post-Katrina. The useful tools and diverse case studies in this text provide the best models available for those interested in implementing or furthering a rights-based agenda. Key Features: Contains an overview of the key international documents regarding the right to health Provides an exploration of the efficacy of rights-based approaches to health Covers professional and ethical issues in rights-based approaches Presents systemic and policy implications, including a rights-based approach to health care reform Includes global case studies from a wide variety of noted organizations and practitioners

How Trump has used the federal government to promote conservative policies The presidency of Donald Trump has been unique in many respects—most obviously his flamboyant personal style and disregard for conventional niceties and factual information. But one area hasn't received as much attention as it deserves: Trump's use of the “administrative presidency,” including executive orders and regulatory changes, to reverse the policies of his predecessor and advance positions that lack widespread support in Congress. This book analyzes the dynamics and unique qualities of Trump's administrative presidency in the important policy areas of health care, education, and climate change. In each of these spheres, the arrival of the Trump administration represented a hostile takeover in which White House policy goals departed sharply from the more “liberal” ideologies and objectives of key agencies, which had been embraced by the Obama administration. Three expert authors show how Trump has continued, and even expanded, the rise of executive branch power since the Reagan years. The authors intertwine this focus with an in-depth examination of how the Trump administration's hostile takeover has drastically changed key federal policies—and reshaped who gets what from government—in the areas of health care, education, and climate change. Readers interested in the institutions of American democracy and the nation's progress (or lack thereof) in dealing with pressing policy problems will find deep insights in this book. Of particular interest is the book's examination of how the Trump administration's actions have long-term implications for American democracy.

This volume of The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research features analyses of the C-SPAN Video Library, a digital collection of 275,000 hours of indexed videos, texts, and spoken words. Included in this volume are papers on Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign, rhetorical analysis of agriculture policy, and an examination of Senator Edward Kennedy’s positions on health care. The text also contains analysis of the “spectacle of committee hearings” and a look at the visuals used in the second Trump impeachment trial.

The American health care industry has undergone such dizzying transformations since the 1960s that many patients have lost confidence in a system they find too impersonal and ineffectual. Is their distrust justified and can confidence be restored? David Dranove, a leading health care economist, tackles these and other key questions in the first major economic and historical investigation of the field. Focusing on the doctor-patient relationship, he begins with the era of the independently practicing physician--epitomized by Marcus Welby, the beloved father figure/doctor in the 1960s television show of the same name--who disappeared with the growth of managed care. Dranove guides consumers in understanding the rapid developments of the health care industry and offers timely policy recommendations for reforming managed care as well as advice for patients making health care decisions. The book covers everything from start-up troubles with the first managed care organizations to attempts at government regulation to the mergers and quality control issues facing MCOs today. It also reflects on how difficult it is for patients to shop for medical care. Up until the 1970s, patients looked to autonomous physicians for recommendations on procedures and hospitals--a process that relied more on the patient's trust of the physician than on facts, and resulted in skyrocketing medical costs. Newly emerging MCOs have tried to solve the shopping problem by tracking the performance of care providers while obtaining discounts for their clients. Many observers accuse MCOs of caring more about cost than quality, and argue for government regulation. Dranove, however, believes that market forces can eventually achieve quality care and cost control. But first, MCOs must improve their ways of measuring provider performance, medical records must be made more complete and accessible (a task that need not compromise patient confidentiality), and patients must be willing to seek and act on information about the best care available. Dranove argues that patients can regain confidence in the medical system, and even come to trust MCOs, but they will need to rely on both their individual doctors and their own consumer awareness.

In this long-awaited updated edition of his groundbreaking work Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, renowned healthcare economist John Goodman ("father" of Health Savings Accounts) analyzes America's ongoing healthcare fiasco—including, for this edition, the failed promises of Obamacare. Goodman then provides what many critics of our healthcare system neglect: solutions. And not a moment too soon. Americans are entangled in a system with perverse incentives that raise costs, reduce quality, and make care less accessible. It's not just patients that need liberation from this labyrinth of confusion—it's doctors, businessmen, and institutions as well. Read this new work and discover: why no one sees a real price for anything: no patient, no doctor, no employer, no employee; how Obamacare's perverse incentives cause insurance companies to seek to attract the healthy and avoid the sick; why having a preexisting condition is actually WORSE under Obamacare than it was before—despite rosy political promises to the contrary; why emergency-room traffic and long waits for care have actually increased under Obamacare; how Medicaid expansion spends new money insuring healthy, single adults, while doing nothing for the developmentally disabled who languish on waiting lists and children who aren't getting the pediatric care they need; how the market for medical care COULD be as efficient and consumer-friendly as the market for cell phone repair... and what it would take to make that happen; how to create centers of medical excellence, which compete to meet the needs of the chronically ill; and much, much more... Thoroughly researched, clearly written, and decidedly humane in its concern for the health of all Americans, John Goodman has written the healthcare book to read to understand today's healthcare crisis. His proposed solutions are bold, crucial, and most importantly, caring. Healthcare is complex. But this book isn't. It's clear, it's satisfying, and it's refreshingly human. If you read even one book about healthcare policy in America, this is the one to read.