"This book presents readers with a comprehensive overview of the U.S. health care delivery system. The third edition has been significantly revised throughout to explain the Patient Protection and Health Care Affordability Act as it unfolds. Other key updates include more detailed discussions of health insurance, expanded information on health systems in other countries, and new case studies"--Provided by publisher.

Our Unsystematic Healthcare System presents readers with a comprehensive overview of the U.S. healthcare system with an emphasis on change. It opens with a comparison of U.S. life expectancy and national expenditures with those of other economically advanced countries. The chapters that follow outline the different sectors of the healthcare system including public health, physician and hospital networks, private and public health insurance plans, and the pharmaceutical industry. The book’s conclusion considers forces outside of the healthcare system that play a role in determining Americans’ health status and longevity. Our Unsystematic Healthcare System is the ideal book for introducing readers to the basics of the complex U.S. healthcare system in an accessible way. New to this Edition: New chapter on public health outlines public health origins, workings, and achievements to give students the background needed to discuss current crises such as COVID-19 and the overturning of Roe v Wade (Chapter 2) New chapter on the pharmaceutical industry explores drug development, advertising, and legislation to explore why the cost of drugs is so high (Chapter 7) New chapter on the social determinants of health considers the World Health Organization's view that neither behavior nor healthcare arrangements are primarily responsible for people’s health (Chapter 9)

The aim of this book is to present the reader with a comprehensive overview of the U.S. health care delivery system. A central theme running through the book revolves around the fact that Americans have expressed a high level of dissatisfaction with the country's health care arrangements for many years, yet have been unable to come up with reforms that would address the main point of dissatisfaction: the steadily rising cost of care. One of the primary objectives of the book is to provide a clear explanation of the health insurance arrangements operating in this country; both public, such as Medicare, and private, which is generally employment-based. The workings of structures that combine payment and provision of health care services, namely HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations), are described in detail. The health care systems developed by other countries are examined to illustrate how this country's 'unsystematic system' differs from those in most other highly industrialized countries. Special attention is directed to hospital and health occupational trends. Statistics gathered by government agencies and researchers associated with various nonprofit organizations are used to illustrate points of discussion. The final chapters of the book address attempts to control costs and changes promoted by sponsors of the most recent reform plans.

This book presents readers with a comprehensive overview of the U.S. health care delivery system. The third edition has been significantly revised throughout to explain the Patient Protection and Health Care Affordability Act as it unfolds. Other key updates include more detailed discussions of health insurance, expanded information on health systems in other countries, and new case studies.

Unequal Health asks why some individuals are living longer and enjoying better health than others. By contrasting popular beliefs about the relevance of such factors as sex, race, poverty, and health habits, Grace Budrys moves beyond factors that receive a great deal of media attention, such as smoking, diet, exercise, even genetic inheritance, and examines those factors that are far more difficult to identify and track, such as relative income and relative social status.

How do we understand and also assess the health care of America? Where is health care provided? What are the characteristics of those institutions which provide it? Over the short term, how are changes in health care provisions affecting the health of the population, the cost of care, and access to care?. Health Care Delivery in the United States, now in a thoroughly updated and revised 9th edition, discusses these and other core issues in the field. Under the editorship of Dr. Kovner and with the addition of Dr. James Knickman, Senior VP of Evaluation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, leading thinkers and practitioners in the field examine how medical knowledge creates new healthcare services. Emerging and recurrent issues from wide perspectives of health policy and public health are also discussed. With an easy to understand format and a focus on the major core challenges of the delivery of health care, this is the textbook of choice for course work in health care, the reference for administrators and policy makers, and the standard for in-service training programs.;chapter

Market-Based Health Care defines for students the challenges, arguments and politics behind the concept of consumer-driven health care including what it would look like if the business sector would do a better job of organizing our health care arrangements and remove any governmental components built into the system. As a sociologist interested in health care, Budrys focuses on the impact our health care arrangements have on not just an economic level but how they affect people as well. This is an overwhelmingly complex topic and debate and one that is discussed widely in the classroom. This will be the first text to clearly present the market-based health care model and how doctors, medical insurance and “big pharma” play a role in its development.