"A Lange medical book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the strengths and weaknesses of US health care -- Paying for health care -- Health insurance and access to care -- Paying health care providers -- Health equity -- Medical ethics and rationing of health care -- How health care is organized : primary, secondary and tertiary care -- How health care is organized : health care delivery systems -- The health care workforce and the education of health professionals -- Long-term care -- Painful vs painless cost control -- Mechanisms for controlling costs -- Quality of health care -- Population health and disease prevention -- Health care in four nations -- Health care reform and national health insurance -- The business of US health care -- Conclusion : tensions and challenges -- Questions and discussion topics.

"This is a book about health policy as well as individual patients and caregivers and how they interact with each other and with the overall health system. When treating a patient's illness, health expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product or variations in surgical rates between one city and another seem remote if not irrelevant-but they are neither remote nor irrelevant. Health policy affects the patients we see on a daily basis. Managed care referral rules determine which specialist will see a patient; coverage gaps in the Medicare benefit package affects access to care for the elderly. Understanding Health Policy hopes to bridge the gap separating the microworld of individual patient care and the macrouniverse of health policy"--