Seminar Series Archives

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Scholars in Health Policy Research Program

On the American Health Care System Seminar
Fall 2005

Reading List

Volume I

First Session: Overview of the U.S. Health System: Access, Costs, Quality and Outcomes of Care

Tuesday, August 30, 2:00–4:00 P.M.
Faculty: Joan Bloom, Ph.D.

Required Readings:
  1. Shi and Singh, Chapter 12 “Costs, Access, and Quality,” Delivering Health Care in America, pp. 483–532.
    (Book passed out)
  2. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, “Key Facts – Race, Ethnicity, and Medical Care,” October, 1999, Menlo Park, California.
  3. Evans, R.G., Barer, M.L.,& Marmor, T.R., “Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? The Determinants of Healthy Populations,” Chapter by Evans and Stoddart, Producing Health, Consuming Health Care, New York: Aldine De Gruyter,
    pp. 27–63.
  4. Auerbach J.A., Krimgold B.K.,&Lefkowitz B. (2000)."Improving Health: It Doesn't Take a Revolution," National Policy Association Washington, D.C.,
  5. Health Disparities in New York City." A Report from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene_.
  6. Millenson, M. “Still Demanding Medical Excellence.” Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care, pp. 151–161.
    (Book passed out)
  7. Williams, D.R. and Jackson, P.B. (2005) “Social Sources of Racial Disparities In Health.” Health Affairs, 24:2, pp. 325–334.
  8. Mechanic, D. (2005) “Policy Challenges in Addressing Racial Disparities And Improving Population Health.” Health Affairs 24:2, pp. 335–338.

Second Session: Social Disparities in Access to and Use of Health Care

Tuesday, September 6, 2:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Faculty: Thomas Rundall, Ph.D.

Required Readings:
  1. Adler, N. and Newman, K (2002). “Socioeconomic Disparities in Health: Pathways and Policies.” Health Affairs, 21:2, pp.60–76.
  2. Baicker K., Chandra, A., Skinner, J.S.,&Wennberg, J.E. “Who You Are And Where You Live: How Race and Geography Affect The Treatment of Medicare Beneficiaries.” Health Affairs – web exclusive: DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.var.33–var.44.
  3. Lurie, N. (2002) “What the Federal Government Can Do About The Nonmedical Determinants of Health.” Health Affairs, 21:2, pp.94–106.
  4. McGinnis, JM., Williams–Russo, P.,&Knickman, J. (2002) “The Case for More Active Policy Attention to Health Promotion.” Health Affairs, 21:2, pp. 78–93.
  5. Mechanic, D. (2002) “Disadvantage, Inequality and Social Policy.” Health Affairs, 21:2, pp.48–59.
  6. Mechanic, D. (2002) “Rediscovering the Social Determinants of Health.” Health Affairs, 19:3, pp. 269.
  7. Weinick R.M., Zuvekas S.H.,&Cohen, J.W. (2000) "Racial and Ethnic Differences in Access to and Use of Health Care Services, 1977 to 1996," Medical Care Research and Review, 57(1): 36–54.

Third Session: Variation in Quality and Outcomes of Care

Thursday, September 8, 2:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Faculty: Steve Shortell, Ph.D., Dean

Required Readings:
  1. Institute of Medicine, "Executive Summary,” Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System For The 21st Century, Nat'l Academy Press: pp.1–23.
  2. Institute of Medicine, "Improving the 21st–Century Health Care System," CQHCA, Nat'l Academy Press: pp.41–64.
  3. Institute of Medicine, "Aligning Payment Policies with Quality Improvement," CQHCA, Nat'l Academy Press: pp.193–219.
  4. Fisher,ES, Wennberg D et al (2003) "The Implications of regional variation in Medicare Spending. Part 1: The Content, Quality, and Accessibility of Care. Part 2: Health Outcomes and Satisfaction with Care,” Annals of Internal Medicine 138(4):273–298.
  5. McGlynn E.A. et al., (2003) "The Quality of Health Care Delivered to Adults in the United States", New England Journal of Medicine, 348:2635–2645.
  6. Jha, A.K., Zhonghe, L., Orav, E.J.,&Epstein, A.M. “Care in U.S. Hospitals – The Hospital Quility Alliance Program” The New England Journal of Medicine July 2005 pp 265–274
  7. Williams, S.C., Schmaltz, S.P., Morton, D.J., Koss, R.G.,&Loeb, J.M. “Quality of Care in U.S. Hospitals as Reflected by Standardized measures, 2002–2004” The New England Journal of Medicine July 2005, pp 255–264.

Fourth Session: Financing of Health Care: Current Issues and Future Prospects
Tuesday, September 13, 2:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Faculty: Hal Luft, Ph.D.

Required Reading:
  1. McClellan, M., (2000) "Medicare Reform: Fundamental Problems, Incremental Steps," Journal of Economic Perspectives, , 14(2): 21–44.
  2. Iglehart, J., (2004)"The New Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit––A Pure Power Play" New England Journal of Medicine, , 350(8): 826–833.
  3. Emanuel, E., and V. R. Fuchs, (2003) "The Universal Cure", N.Y. Times.
Recommended:
  1. Fuchs, V. R., (2000) Medicare Reform: The Larger Picture, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(2): 57–70.
  2. Cutler, D.M., "Walking the Tightrope on Medicare Reform," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2000, 14(2): 45–56.

Fifth Session: How We Budget For Health Programs at the National Level

Thursday, September 15, 2:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Faculty: John Ellwood, Ph.D.

Required Reading:
  1. Ellwood, J.W., “How Congress Controls Expenditures,” Reductions in U.S. Domestic Spending, pp. 21–31.
  2. Rivlin, A and Sawhill I, editors, Restoring Fiscal Sanity, 2005: Meeting the Long–Run Challenge (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2005), Read “Overview,” pp. 1–16, Chapter 4, “Health,” pp. 99–118, by Henry J. Aaron and John B. Shoven, and Chapter 6, “The Politics of Deficit Reduction,” pp. 119–139, by Isabelle Sawhill and Ron Haskins. (Book passed out)
Recommended:
  1. Skocpol, Theda, “Cross Pressures: Contemporary Politics of Health Reform” in David Mechanic et. al. edited, Policy Changes in Modern Health Care, (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005), pp. 26–36. (Book passed out)
  2. Holtz–Eaken, D. Estimating the Cost of the Medicare Modernization Act
  3. Kent W.R., "Controlling Entitlements" in John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson, edited, The New Direction in American Politics (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1985),
    pp. 307–342.

Sixth Session: Medical Work Force
Tuesday, September 20, 2:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Faculty: Richard Scheffler, Ph.D.

Required Reading:
  1. Shi and Singh, Chapter 4 Health Services Professionals
    pp. 117–148.
  2. Scheffler, R., Life in the Kaleidoscope: The Impact of Managed Care on the U.S. Model for the Delivery of Primary Care.
  3. Draft Chapter from the forthcoming book by Richard Scheffler, “From Priest to Clock Watcher: Doctor's Struggle with Managed Care” (working title)

[Back to top]