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Now in its 10th edition, this best-selling introductory text, valued for its balanced overview of the U.S. health care system, has been fully updated to help students stay at the forefront of the dynamic and complex health care field. Jonas'Introduction to the U.S. Health Care System continues to offer a foundational framework that concisely explains the core elements and functions of the system. The text provides an essential understanding of the current state of the health care system, as well as the factors influencing its future state. Students also benefit from the special emphasis given to the evolution of the health care system and to identification of the underlying values that influence health care policy. Well-organized and easily accessible, the 10th edition prepares the next generation of health care leaders—from health care management, public health, medicine, nursing, allied health, and health policy—to comprehend the variety of forces that shape the field in which they will practice so they can navigate change and improve the health system's record on quality, safety, value, access, and equity. New to the 10th Edition: Expanded coverage of telehealth, advanced consumer medical devices, apps, and remote patient monitoring Updated treatment of the social and political determinants of health Discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic including the health care system's resiliency in the face of adversity Updated content on the diverse health care workforce and its functions Discussion of important financing issues including value-based care and alternative payment models as well as the impact of private equity funding, consolidation, and consumerism Significantly updated sections across the continuum of care including self-care, adult day services, hospice, long-term care, and others Key Features The most concise and balanced introduction to the U.S. health care system Engaging visual content including cartoons, graphs, and tables that consolidate key information about health care system performance, workforce trends, health care financing, and policy changes Qualified instructors have access to this edition's expanded Instructor Resources featuring new learning activities, engaging case studies, and additional resources to supplement students'dynamic learning and interaction with the text

Basics of the U.S. Health Care System provides a broad introduction to the workings of the healthcare industry. Engaging and activities-oriented, the text offers an accessible overview of the major concepts of healthcare operations; the role of government and public health; inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care services; payors and financing; careers; and legal and ethical issues. Updated with new data throughout, the Fifth Edition also includes coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the global impact of the pandemic and global vaccination rates; the impact of socioeconomic factors on COVID outcomes; the disease's impact on mental health; the U.S. government role in managing the pandemic, and more.

Note to Readers: Publisher does not guarantee quality or access to any included digital components if book is purchased through a third-party seller.This revised ninth edition of the best-selling introductory text to the U.S. health care system is fully updated to reflect changes to health care services, delivery, and financing resulting from new policies affecting the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Valued for its concise and balanced survey of the U.S. health care system, this book describes how the American health care system currently functions, the major factors that led to its present day structure, and a forecasting of how the industry is likely to change over the course of the next few years. This practical text highlights an array of influences shaping the future of health care, such as the use of big data and analytics, new policies and trends tied to pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and innovations to mental health and substance abuse. With an emphasis on policy development, the authors underscore the fluidity of the system and examine the debates and conflicts that have shaped health care changes and influenced American values and belief systems.This accessible text defines the most essential elements of the health care system, including its components, organization, services, and financing. An ideal text for undergraduate courses, graduate survey courses, and courses introducing the subject to medical students, it describes the ongoing evolution of the system, taking into consideration future directions given proposed changes to the ACA and other health laws by Congress, the Trump administration, and the political landscape in general. Organized to facilitate an understanding of concepts at work, Jonas'Introduction to the U.S. Health Care System equips public health and health administration students as well as medical, nursing, and allied health professionals with a deeper understanding of the field in which they will practice, so they can position themselves to navigate upcoming changes that affect health care quality, value, and access.New to the Ninth Edition:Updated to address changes to health care services, delivery, and financing in the United StatesAn expanded section on future trends in health careA full description of the health care reform politics under the Obama and Trump administrations and those being promoted in political campaignsNew chapter on medicines, devices, and health care technologyIncreased coverage of mental health and substance abuse, long-term care, and other institutionalized populationsDigital ancillaries include access to the eBook, an annual update on U.S. health policy, and new student exercises utilizing publicly available dataKey Features:The most concise and balanced introduction to the U.S. health care systemProvides a framework for examining how each structure and stakeholder within the health system interacts and how changes to policy would affect themNumerous cartoons, graphs, and tables break up the text and serve as meaningful context with pertinent dataEach chapter utilizes learning objectives and discussion questions to guide student readingIncludes a full suite of Instructor ancillaries including an Instructor's Manual, PowerPoints, Test Bank, and other exercises

Medical expenditure has become a heavy burden on the public sector and the family system in many countries. Expanding the coverage and reimbursement of medical insurance has become a common way to reduce the burden. This book will elaborate on how medical insurance may increase the burden instead.It explains why the existing medical insurance system results in increased medical costs, where higher costs may offset the benefits of certainty brought by medical insurance, forming the'paradox of medical care insurance'. This assumption is verified by empirical evidence in China, through a new method developed to find out the actual medical costs, using two parameters: ratio of self-payment of medical insurance and the level of monopoly in the supply of medical services. The book also describes the history, the current situation, and the reform of the health care system in China.

Health Insurance Systems: An International Comparison offers united and synthesized information currently available only in scattered locations - if at all - to students, researchers, and policymakers. The book provides helpful contexts, so people worldwide can understand various healthcare systems. By using it as a guide to the mechanics of different healthcare systems, readers can examine existing systems as frameworks for developing their own. Case examples of countries adopting insurance characteristics from other countries enhance the critical insights offered in the book. If more information about health insurance alternatives can lead to better decisions, this guide can provide an essential service. Delivers fundamental insights into the different ways that countries organize their health insurance systems Presents ten prominent health insurance systems in one book, facilitating comparisons and contrasts, to help draw policy lessons Countries included are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States Helps students, researchers, and policymakers searching for innovative designs by providing cases describing what countries have learned from each other

The preeminent doctor and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel is repeatedly asked one question: Which country has the best healthcare? He set off to find an answer.The US spends more than any other nation, nearly $4 trillion, on healthcare. Yet, for all that expense, the US is not ranked #1 -- not even close.In Which Country Has the World's Best Healthcare? Ezekiel Emanuel profiles eleven of the world's healthcare systems in pursuit of the best or at least where excellence can be found. Using a unique comparative structure, the book allows healthcare professionals, patients, and policymakers alike to know which systems perform well, and why, and which face endemic problems. From Taiwan to Germany, Australia to Switzerland, the most inventive healthcare providers tackle a global set of challenges -- in pursuit of the best healthcare in the world.

Many countries are seeking to reach an effective universal health coverage system to increase the quality of life of their citizens. By implementing universal health coverage, countries can support all citizens, including those who do not have the financial power to pay for healthcare services, in receiving the necessary medical treatment to enable them to live healthier lives. Multidimensional Perspectives and Global Analysis of Universal Health Coverage is an essential reference source that defines the significance of universal health coverage and studies multiple concepts related to universal health coverage that can support qualified recommendations for governments seeking to improve their healthcare situation. Featuring research on topics such as financial risk, organizational performance, and patient safety, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, hospital executives, government officials, lawmakers, politicians, academicians, students, and researchers.

How can countries chart their own course toward universal health coverage?Like many ambitious global goals, universal health coverage (UHC) remains an aspiration for many countries. The World Health Organization estimates that half the world's population lacks access to basic health services. Moreover, this already staggering number masks inequities that exist between and within countries: gaps between rich and poor, men and women, young and old, and among people of different ethnic backgrounds. UHC promises to give all people greater access to higher quality health services without the fear of financial hardship. But the task of turning this vision into reality poses a significant challenge for countries at all stages of economic development.In The Road to Universal Health Coverage, Jeffrey L. Sturchio, Ilona Kickbusch, Louis Galambos, and their contributors explore the ways in which the private sector is already helping countries achieve universal health coverage. Stressing the many positive aspects of UHC developments, the book focuses on the new health economy and the sometimes controversial dimensions of the private sector helping countries achieve UHC. Theoretical chapters are complemented by a series of case studies that explore the myriad ways in which private sector actors are already addressing UHC. What are the conditions required for countries to translate their successful experiences and policy promises into practical results for improved population health? In answering this question, the contributors examine the relationship between health employment and economic growth. They also analyze the critical success factors for private sector engagement in UHC, the role of healthy women in creating and sustaining healthy economies, and the role of the pharmaceutical sector. Looking to the political, economic, and social implications of moving from aspiration to implementation, The Road to Universal Health Coverage points the way to the many opportunities ahead as companies continue to work with governments and civil society partners to help achieve UHC.Jean-Louise Arcand, Héctor Arreola-Ornelas, Nathan J. Blanchet, Christine Bugos, Jim Campbell, John Campbell, Jr., Ibadat Dhillon, Donika Dimovska, Christian Franz, Michael Fürst, Louis Galambos, Belén Garijo, Adeel Ishtiaq, Sowmya Kadandale, Ilona Kickbusch, Felicia Marie Knaul, Jeremy Lauer, Robert Marten, Justin McCarthy, Harald Nusser, K. Srinath Reddy, Yasmine Rouai, Jeffrey L. Sturchio, Cicely Thomas, Tana Wuliji, Snow Yang, Pascal Zurn

There is constant pressure on hospitals to improve health care delivery and increase cost effectiveness. New initiatives are the order of the day in the dramatically different health care systems of the United States and Great Britain. Often, as we know all too well, these efforts are not successful. In The Challenge to Change, Rebecca Kolins Givan analyzes the successes and failures of efforts to improve hospitals and explains what factors make it likely that the implementation of reforms will rewarded by positive transformation in a particular institution's day-to-day operation. Givan's in-depth qualitative case studies of both top-down initiatives and changes first suggested by staff on the front lines of care point clearly to the importance of all hospital workers in effecting change and even influencing national policy.Givan illuminates the critical role of workers, managers, and unions in enabling or constraining changes in policies and procedures and ensuring their implementation. Givan spotlights an Anglo-American model of hospital care and work organization, even while these countries retain their differences in access and payment. Entrenched professional roles, hierarchical workplace organization, and the sometimes-detached view of policymakers all shape the prospects for change in hospitals. Givan provides important examples of how the dedication and imagination of the people who work in hospitals can make all the difference when it comes to providing quality health care even in a challenging economic environment.

Our Unsystematic Health Care System presents readers with a comprehensive overview of the U.S. health care delivery system. Significantly revised and updated, the fourth edition explores the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or'Obamacare,'as it unfolds—including both challenges and successes. Grace Budrys traces how dissatisfied Americans have been with the country's health care arrangements and the continuing changes of health care reforms.The fourth edition examines the impact the Affordable Care Act has had on the U.S. health care system since it was enacted in 2010, including efforts to identify the appropriate indicators to gauge the law's effects. As in previous editions, the book introduces readers to health insurance arrangements in the United States, including private and public health insurance plans, then compares our health care system to those in other countries, which often have better patient outcomes and lower cost. The fourth edition points out the factors outside of the health care system that might play a role in explaining why Americans do not enjoy better health and longer life expectancy.Our Unsystematic Health Care System is an ideal book for introducing readers, especially students in courses such as medical sociology, public health, or health policy and administration, to the basics of the complex U.S. health care system in an accessible way.

Innovation in medical technology generates a remarkable supply of new drugs, devices, and diagnostics that improve health, reduce risks, and extend life. But these technologies are too often used on the wrong patient, in the wrong setting, or at an unaffordable price. The only way to moderate the growth in health care costs without undermining the dynamic of medical innovation is to improve the process of assessing, pricing, prescribing, and using new technologies. Purchasing Medical Innovation analyzes the contemporary revolution in the purchasing of health care technology, with a focus on the roles of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Medicare and private health insurers, physicians and hospitals, and consumers themselves. The FDA is more thoroughly assessing product performance under real-world conditions as well as in laboratory settings, accelerating the path to market for breakthroughs while imposing use controls on risky products. Insurers are improving their criteria for coverage and designing payment methods that reward efficiency in the selection of new treatments. Hospitals are aligning adoption of complex supplies and equipment more closely with physicians'preferences for the best treatment for their patients. Consumers are becoming more engaged and financially accountable for their health care choices. This book describes both the strengths and deficiencies of the current system of purchasing and highlights opportunities for buyers, sellers, and users to help improve the value of medical technology: better outcomes at lower cost.

A Different Perspective on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides a brief history of health insurance within the United States, offering an accessible perspective on the highly contentious Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). This book traces the political and financial conditions that led to the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Thoroughly researched, A Different Perspective on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act details the drastic increase of health care expenditures in both state legislatures and the federal government, the fiscal strain experienced throughout the nation, and the main objectives of President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare reform plan.

This is the story of the Singapore healthcare system: how it works, how it is financed, its history, where it is going, and what lessons it may hold for national health systems around the world. Singapore ranks sixth in the world in healthcare outcomes, yet spends proportionally less on healthcare than any other high-income country. This is the first book to set out a comprehensive system-level description of healthcare in Singapore, with a view to understanding what can be learned from its unique system design and development path.The lessons from Singapore will be of interest to those currently planning the future of healthcare in emerging economies, as well as those engaged in the urgent debates on healthcare in the wealthier countries faced with serious long-term challenges in healthcare financing. Policymakers, legislators, public health officials responsible for healthcare systems planning, finance and operations, as well as those working on healthcare issues in universities and think tanks should understand how the Singapore system works to achieve affordable excellence.

In this book, the authors present current research in the study of the issues and challenges of health care insurance from across the globe. Topics discussed in this compilation include the assessment of the efficiency of hospitals in Botswana; the public long-term care insurance system in Japan; an examination of service delivery when there is an integration of health insurance and care provisions; estimating the total health expenditure on households by sources of financing and providers in Gambia; and social and private insurance systems in The Netherlands.

This book provides unique insights into the current heated healthcare reform debate in the United States and the expanding US$2 trillion industry that is the focus of public concern. The author's extensive experience as an educator, consultant, researcher and author of five well-received books on that system provides a unique resource of largely unreported cases to mine. These vivid case studies weave the history, richness and complexity of the problems faced by patients and service providers into fascinating Byzantine intrigues. They illustrate the underlying structural problems that have produced disparities in treatment, escalating costs, unsafe and inadequate care, the demoralization of the many decent and committed people who work within the system and passionate calls for reform. Highly readable, the book also offers a candor and richness in detail that is typically lacking in textbooks, academic journal articles and the popular press.

Increasingly, the core mission of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, is expanding from one of focusing on prompt claims payment to one of becoming more broadly involved in improving health care quality and efficiency. The requirements for the information technology (IT) systems of CMS are changing as its mission changes, and the efforts to evolve its systems from those designed to support the agency's historical mission come in the midst of a push to modernize the nation's health care IT more broadly. These new challenges arise even as CMS must meet challenging day-to-day operational requirements and make frequent adjustments to its business processes, code, databases, and systems in response to changing statutory, regulatory, and policy requirements. In light of these and other emerging challenges, CMS asked the National Research Council to conduct a study that would lay out a forward-looking vision for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, taking account of CMS's mission, business processes, and information technology requirements. The study is being conducted in two phases. The first, resulting in the present volume, draws on a series of teleconferences, briefings, and an information-gathering workshop held in Washington, D.C., on September 27-28, 2010. The second phase, drawing on that workshop and on additional briefings, site visits, and committee deliberations, will result in a final report with recommendations, to be issued at the end of the project in 2011.

Despite the attention to the problem of protecting the health care interests of Americans, there is little consensus on what should be done politically or otherwise to address this problem. In Protecting American Health Care Consumers Eleanor DeArman Kinney, a nationally regarded expert on health policy and law, tackles the serious and ongoing debate among state and federal policymakers, health care providers, third-party payers, and consumers about how to provide procedural justice to patients in the present health care climate.To promote and ensure consumer protection in an increasingly adversarial and complicated health-care culture, Kinney first analyzes the procedures by which consumer concerns are presently discerned and resolved and then explains why these systems are unsatisfactory. She also discusses problematic procedures for making coverage policy and quality standards and proposes reforms in a variety of processes that would enable all consumers, including the uninsured, to influence key policies and standards and also to raise concerns and obtain appropriate remedies.As the first comprehensive treatment of administrative procedures in American health plans and other such institutions, Protecting American Health Care Consumers will be welcomed by state and federal policymakers, managed care executives, and lawyers charged with designing and implementing protections for consumers in public and private health plans.

'Vietnam's successes in the health sector are legendary. Its rates of infant and under-five mortality are comparable to those of countries with substantially higher per capita incomes. Vietnam continues to be an over-achiever in the health sector according to data assembled in this book. Like other countries, though, Vietnam faces challenges in its health system. By international standards, for example, Vietnam has a high incidence of catastrophic household health spending--a large fraction of households make out-of-pocket payments for health care that exceeds a reasonable fraction of their income. To address this and related issues, Vietnam has been extending the breadth of health insurance coverage. Questions remain, however, about how to further expand coverage, and how to put downward pressure on health care costs, which are rising rapidly, and upward pressure on the quality of care, which some evidence suggests is low. This book generates new evidence and new insights on these topics, and sets out some ideas for further reforming Vietnam's health system'--Provided by publisher.

Health service policy and health policy have changed considerably over the past fifteen years and there is a pressing need for an up-to-date sociological analysis of health policy. Not only have policies themselves changed but new policy themes – such as evidence-based policy and practice, an increasing focus on a primary care led health service, a growing recognition of the need to address inequalities through public health policies and a focus on the views and the voice of the user and the public– have emerged alongside some of the old.Following up the very successful The Sociology of the Health Service, this all-new volume covers a broad range of key contemporary health services issues. It includes chapters on consumerism, technology, evidence-based practice, public health, managerialism and social care among others, and incorporates references to new developments, such as regulation and incentivization, throughout.The New Sociology of the Health Service provides a vital new sociological framework for analyzing health policy and healthcare. It is an important read for all students and researchers of medical sociology and health policy.

Proposals to reform the health care system typically focus on either increasing private insurance or expanding government-sponsored plans. Guaranteeing that everyone is insured, however, does not create a system with the quality of care patients want, the flexibility clinicians need, and the internal dynamics to continually improve the value of health care.In Total Cure, Hal Luft presents a comprehensive new proposal, SecureChoice, which does all that while providing affordable health insurance for every American. SecureChoice is a plan that restructures payment for medical care, harnessing the flexibility and responsiveness of the market by aligning the incentives of clinicians, hospitals, and insurers with those of the patient. It uses the accountability of government to ensure transparency, competition, and equity.SecureChoice has two major components. A universal pool covers the major risks of hospitalization and chronic illness, which account for almost two-thirds of all costs. Everyone would be in the pool, irrespective of employment, income, or health status. The second component emphasizes choice, flexibility, and responsibility. People will be able to choose any physician to serve as their “medical home,” to keep track of their health records, provide much of their care, and suggest referrals. Clinicians will have the information and incentives to continually enhance quality. SecureChoice also facilitates improvements in areas ranging from malpractice to pharmaceuticals and establishes new roles for key stakeholders such as health insurers.

In this volume, the nation's leading advisors on health policy and financing appraise America's ailing healthcare system and suggest reasonable approaches to its rehabilitation. Each chapter confronts a major challenge to the country's health security, from runaway costs and uneven quality of care to declining levels of insurance coverage, medical bankruptcy, and the growing enthusiasm for health plans that put patients in charge of risk and cost. Bringing the latest research to bear on these issues, contributors diagnose the problems of our present system and offer treatments grounded in extensive experience. Free of bias and rhetoric, Health at Risk is an invaluable tool for those who are concerned with the current state of healthcare and are eager to effect change.

Learn helpful tips and hints for developing a healthcare plan that works best for your budget and needs.

Hidden Cost, Value Lost, the fifth of a series of six books on the consequences of uninsurance in the United States, illustrates some of the economic and social losses to the country of maintaining so many people without health insurance. The book explores the potential economic and societal benefits that could be realized if everyone had health insurance on a continuous basis, as people over age 65 currently do with Medicare. Hidden Costs, Value Lost concludes that the estimated benefits across society in health years of life gained by providing the uninsured with the kind and amount of health services that the insured use, are likely greater than the additional social costs of doing so. The potential economic value to be gained in better health outcomes from uninterrupted coverage for all Americans is estimated to be between $65 and $130 billion each year.

Why, alone among industrial democracies, does the United States not have national health insurance? While many books have addressed this question, Dead on Arrival is the first to do so based on original archival research for the full sweep of the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide range of political, reform, business, and labor records, Colin Gordon traces a complex and interwoven story of political failure and private response. He examines, in turn, the emergence of private, work-based benefits; the uniquely American pursuit of'social insurance'; the influence of race and gender on the health care debate; and the ongoing confrontation between reformers and powerful economic and health interests. Dead on Arrival stands alone in accounting for the failure of national or universal health policy from the early twentieth century to the present. As importantly, it also suggests how various interests (doctors, hospitals, patients, workers, employers, labor unions, medical reformers, and political parties) confronted the question of health care--as a private responsibility, as a job-based benefit, as a political obligation, and as a fundamental right. Using health care as a window onto the logic of American politics and American social provision, Gordon both deepens and informs the contemporary debate. Fluidly written and deftly argued, Dead on Arrival is thus not only a compelling history of the health care quandary but a fascinating exploration of the country's political economy and political culture through'the American century,'of the role of private interests and private benefits in the shaping of social policy, and, ultimately, of the ways the American welfare state empowers but also imprisons its citizens.

On July 12, 1966, the Medical Care Insurance Act was passed by the federal House of Commons after a ferocious public debate that pitted the vast majority of Canadians against a powerful alliance of business, insurance companies, and doctors.More than thirty years later, the same battle is being fought all over again. Only now, the forces opposed to medicare are more ideologically unified, more richly endowed, and tied to transnational corporations whose power exceeds that of entire countries.In Profit Is Not the Cure, Maude Barlow traces the history of medicare in Canada. She compares it with both public and private systems in other parts of the world. And she contrasts it with the brutally divisive system that exists in the United States, where forty-four million people have no medical insurance, and millions more get minimal care through profit-driven health maintenance organizations. From the point of view of most patients, the United States health-care model is a disaster. But the proponents of privatization in Canada, supported by the right-wing media and corporate lobbyists, are determined to impose American-style “reforms” on the Canadian public. Three provinces – British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario – are moving ahead rapidly to enlarge the role of commerce in the provision of health-care services. They are introducing user fees, delisting procedures that previously were covered, and encouraging private corporations to move into areas that used to be the exclusive domain of the public system.While the prime minister and federal cabinet have paid lipservice to the principles of medicare, they have made it clear by their actions that they will do nothing to impede the destruction of those principles by the provinces. In fact, their enthusiastic support of NAFTA, and the impending Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), has made the defence of medicare increasingly difficult. Canadians overwhelmingly support medicare. Many, however, have been persuaded that it is a luxury we can no longer afford. Maude Barlow argues that this proposition is wrong. An earlier generation fought a bitter battle to bring medicare into existence. Another battle must be fought now to save it. But we owe it to the founders of the system, as well as to future generations, to take up the cause again. This important book shows the way.

Issued also in French under the title: La santé au Canada.

Issued also in French under the title: La santé au Canada.

Issued also in French under the title: La santé au Canada.

Issued also in French under the title: La santé au Canada.

Argues for a health care system that would restore power and responsibility to the individual consumer and taking it out of the hands of government and insurance companies

In today's bureaucratically dominated health care system, the patient's major role is to sign the forms that authorize one large, impersonal organization to release funds to another. Government, through Medicare and Medicaid, buys close to half the health care provided in America today. Most of the other half is paid for by insurance companies, through policies purchased by third parties, because the tax laws encourage people to rely on first-dollar health coverage from their employers. When health care appears to be free or very cheap, people buy more than they would if they were paying the full cost. The resulting casual attitude toward shopping for health care drives up prices, drives up insurance premiums, and creates hardship for business and those without insurance. The Goodman and Musgrave solution is to restore power and responsibility to individuals.