Kronenfeld Jennie Jacobs - Healthcare Reform in America: a Reference Handbook

Marijuana: A Reference Handbook

David E. Newton

Religious Nationalism: A Reference Handbook

Atalia Omer and Jason A. Springs

The Rising Costs of Higher Education: A Reference Handbook

John R. Thelin

Vaccination Controversies: A Reference Handbook

David E. Newton

The Animal Experimentation Debate: A Reference Handbook

David E. Newton

Steroids and Doping in Sports: A Reference Handbook

David E. Newton

Internet Censorship: A Reference Handbook

Bernadette H. Schell

School Violence: A Reference Handbook, Second Edition

Laura L. Finley

GMO Food: A Reference Handbook

David E. Newton

Wind Energy: A Reference Handbook

David E. Newton

Profiling and Criminal Justice in America: A Reference Handbook, Second Edition

Jeff Bumgarner

Fracking: A Reference Handbook

David E. Newton

Books in the Contemporary World Issues series address vital issues in todays society such as genetic engineering, pollution, and biodiversity. Written by professional writers, scholars, and nonacademic experts, these books are authoritative, clearly written, up-to-date, and objective. They provide a good starting point for research by high school and college students, scholars, and general readers as well as by legislators, businesspeople, activists, and others.

Each book, carefully organized and easy to use, contains an overview of the subject, a detailed chronology, biographical sketches, facts and data and/or documents and other primary source material, a forum of authoritative perspective essays, annotated lists of print and nonprint resources, and an index.

Readers of books in the Contemporary World Issues series will find the information they need to have a better understanding of the social, political, environmental, and economic issues facing the world today.

CONTEMPORARY WORLD ISSUES

Healthcare Reform in America

A REFERENCE HANDBOOK

Second Edition

Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld and Michael Kronenfeld

Copyright 2015 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kronenfeld, Jennie J., author.

Healthcare reform in America : a reference handbook / Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld and Michael Kronenfeld. Second edition.

p. ; cm. (Contemporary world issues)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9781610699655 (hard copy : alk. paper) ISBN 9781610699662 (eISBN) I. Kronenfeld, Michael R., author. II. Title. III. Series: Contemporary world issues. [DNLM: 1. Health Care ReformUnited States. 2. Federal GovernmentUnited States. 3. Quality of Health CareeconomicsUnited States. WA 540 AA1]

RA395.A3

362.104250973dc232014045767

ISBN: 9781610699655

EISBN: 9781610699662

19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5

This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.

Visit www.abc-clio.com for details.

ABC-CLIO, LLC

130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911

Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book, but in some instances this has proven impossible.The editors and publishers will be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowledgments in subsequent printings of the book and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.

Depending on how one views the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, more commonly referred to as ACA), passed in 2010 during the first term of the presidency of Barack Obama, the United States has either passed major health reform legislation, major health insurance reform, or legislation that may destroy many of the positive changes to healthcare in the United States in the past 50 years. The ACA is the most important change in the healthcare system in the United States since passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. It is attempting to greatly improve access to care, provide a more consistent quality of care for all Americans, and address cost issues. The limited reforms that occurred in the 1990s (some control of managed care; the CHIP program) and the addition of drug coverage to the Medicare program addressed these issues in a more piecemeal fashion. Due to the ACA, some important concerns such exceeding the amount of coverage after developing a major health problem and lack of coverage for preexisting conditions have been addressed.

This handbook reviews both successful and failed attempts at healthcare reform in the past century, identifying the economic, social, and political issues that both pushed for the creation of a national system and prevented it from being completely implemented. Most experts agree that some very important issues remain. While there have been some efforts at cost control and quality improvement, there will continue to be concerns that require additional changes in administration, technology, and training. Issues of long-term healthcare needs for older adults, people with disabilities, and people with chronic mental illness will also need to be addressed.

This handbook on healthcare reform presents issues and questions relevant to the full range of social science disciplines in high school and college-level courses. By showing the interplay and significance of these issues as they focus on the healthcare system, the reader should be able to see the importance and interplay of the work of the different disciplines on the topic.

This book is very different than it would have been if it had been written 20 years ago, before the emergence of the Internet as an increasingly important platform for the presentation of information, analysis, and advocacy on the relevant (and sometimes not so relevant) issues of our time. Before the Web, access to information and viewpoints on a topic were both limited and often not timely. While many issue advocacy groups existed before the Internet, finding out about them was both difficult and time consuming. Government data were available at many public and academic libraries but were hard to find and access. Periodical indexes were available at libraries, but tracking down the articles identified was much more difficult and time consuming. While many of the issues relating to the healthcare sector and the delivery of healthcare in the United States have not greatly changed in this time period, the ability to access information on the topic has grown almost exponentially.

The ability to access large volumes of information has not made the task of understanding the issues any easier for someone just beginning to explore and understand them. It is very easy to become overwhelmed both with the volume of information and with the worthiness of the information presented by competing and contradictory advocacy groups. The first two chapters of the book introduce the reader to the basic issues and give the context needed to further explore the issues discussed in some of the later chapters. The third and fourth chapters provide beginning researchers perspectives on how different experts see the promises and challenges arising from the passage of the ACA, as well as introduce them to some of the key players in the recent efforts of reforming our healthcare system. provide basic data on the healthcare system and identify sources for additional research. Finally, the Glossary and Chronology provide ready reference to assist the reader in understanding the terminology of the healthcare system and its reform as well as the over 200-year history of its development.