Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair: Health Care and the Good Society

by James A. Morone

Overview

America may be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet its citizens have lower life expectancy, more infant mortalities, and higher adolescent death rates than those in most other advanced industrial nations—and even some developing countries. In Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair a distinguished group of health policy experts pointedly examines this troubling paradox, as they chart the stark disparities in health and wealth in the United States. Rich in insight and extensive in scope, these incisive essays explain how growing income inequality, high poverty rates, and inadequate coverage combine to create the U.S.'s current healthcare difficulties. Ultimately, Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair not only identifies the problems contributing to America's healthcare woes but also outlines concrete policy proposals for reform, issuing a clarion call to end the stalemate over health reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195170665
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	12/03/2004
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

James A. Morone is Professor of Political Science at Brown University. He is the author of over 100 articles and essays and is a frequent contributor to The American Prospect and the London Review of Books. His most recent book is Hellfire Nation.

Lawrence R. Jacobs is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies at the University of Minnesota. His most recent books include Inequality and American Democracy with Theda Skocpol and Politicians Don't Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness with Robert Y. Shapiro.

Table of Contents

Contributors
Introduction: Health and Wealth in the Good Society, James A. Morone and Lawrence R. Jacobs
Part I: An American Dilemma
1. Why the USA Is Not Number One in Health, Ichiro Kawachi
2. Health Disparities in the Land of Equality, Lawrence R. Jacobs
Part II: Corrosive Markets
3. How Market Ideology Guarantees Racial Inequality, Deborah Stone
4. The Damages of the Market Panacea, Mark Schlesinger
Part III: Silent Groups
5. Organized Labor's Incredible, Shrinking Social Vision, Marie Gottschalk
6. Interest Groups and the Reproduction of Inequality, Connie A. Nathanson
Part IV: Chaotic Institutions
7. The Congressional Graveyard for Health Care Reform, Mark A. Peterson
8. Courts, Inequality, and Health Care, Peter D. Jacobson and Elisabeth Selvin
Part V: The Territory Ahead: Little Victories
9. Medicaid at the Crossroads, Colleen Grogan and Erik Patashnik
10. Kids and Bureaucrats at the Grass Roots, Elizabeth H. Kilbreth and James A. Morone
Part VI: The Territory Ahead: Thinking Big
11. Incrementalism Adds Up?, Lawrence D. Brown
12. What Government Can Do, Benjamin I. Page
Conclusion: Prospering in the Age of Global Markets, Lawrence R. Jacobs and James A. Morone
Essential Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

"[This] book will surely resonate in the thoughts of policymakers, public health and public policy scholars, and anyone interested in a fairer and healthier society."—The New England Journal of Medicine

"Americans want everyone to have access to decent health care—yet in an era of rising economic inequality, our country is moving ever further from that ideal. Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair asks why this has happened, and illuminates the way forward. The arguments assembled here are not timid. Many readers will heartily agree. Others will demur. But all will be enlightened and engaged."—Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University and author of The Missing Middle: Working Families and the Future of American Social Policy

"Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair makes crystal clear what many have felt and feared: that the nation's growing concentration and mal-distribution of wealth, besides breeding greater political inequality, financial corruption and money worship, also strikes at the health, physical well-being and life expectancy of less advantaged Americans."—Kevin Phillips, author of Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich

"Inequalities in wealth, income, knowledge and class cripple democratic citizens; inequalities in health care destroy lives. There is no more important issue for America than health care, and no more pressing need that that of health care reform. In Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair, distinguished health policy experts offer a clear portrait of the impact of market economics on fair health care and make a powerful case for bold health care reform. Vital reading for social scientists, policy makers and citizens alike."—Benjamin R. Barber, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, and author of Strong Democracy and Jihad vs. McWorld

From the Publisher