Seminar Series Archives

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Scholars in Health Policy Research Program

American Health Care System Seminar
Fall 2007

Reading List

Volume I

Session One: Overview of the US Health System: Access, Costs, Quality, and Outcomes of Care

Tuesday, August 28, 2007, 2:00pm-4:00pm
Faculty: Joan Bloom

Required Reading:

  1. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (1999). Key Facts: Race, Ethnicity, and Medical Care. Menlo Park, CA: Author.
  2. Evans, R.G., & Stoddart, G.L. (1994). Chapter 2: Producing Health, Consuming Health Care. In Evans, R.G., Barer, M.L., & Marmor, T.R. (Eds.), Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? The Determinants of Healthy Populations (pp. 27-64). New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
  3. Auerbach, J.A., Krimgold, B.K., & Lefkowitz, B. (2000). Improving Health: It Doesn’t Take a Revolution. Washington, DC: National Policy Association.
  4. Link, B.G., & Phelan, J.C. (2005). Chapter 5: Fundamental Sources of Health Inequalities. In Mechanic, D., Rogut, L.B., Colby, D.C., & Knickman, J.R. (Eds.), Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care (pp.71-84). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. (book distributed)
  5. Millenson, M.L. (2005). Chapter 10: Still Demanding Medical Excellence. In Mechanic, D., Rogut, L.B., Colby, D.C., & Knickman, J.R. (Eds.), Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care (pp.151-61). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. (book distributed)
  6. Williams, D.R., & Jackson, P.B. (2005). Social Sources of Racial Disparities in Health. Health Affairs, 24(2), 325-34.
  7. Mechanic, D. (2005). Policy Challenges in Addressing Racial Disparities and Improving Population Health. Health Affairs, 24(2), 335-8.
Recommended Reading:
  1. Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2004). Chapter 12: Cost, Access, and Quality. In Delivering Health Care in America : A Systems Approach, Third Edition (pp. 483-526). Massachusetts : Jones and Bartlett Publishers. (book distributed)

Session Two: The Problem of the Uninsured in the US

Tuesday, September 4, 2007, 2:00pm-4:00pm
Faculty: Thomas Rundall

Required Reading :

  1. Dubay, L., Holahan, J., & Cook, A. (2007). The Uninsured and the Affordability of Health Insurance Coverage. Health Affairs, 26(1), w22-w30.
  2. Gusmano, M.K., Fairbrother, G., & Park, H. (2002). Exploring the Limits of the Safety Net: Community Health Centers and Care for the Uninsured. Health Affairs, 21(6), 188-94.
  3. Blendon, R., et al. (2002). Inequities in Health Care: A Five Country Survey. Health Affairs, 21(3), 182-91.
  4. Visit the web site of the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation ( www.kff.org) and review the information available there. Particularly read the lead reports on the following pages:

    Health Insurance Costs
    http://www.kff.org/insurance/index.cfm

    Health Coverage and the Uninsured
    http://www.kff.org/uninsured/index.cfm

    Access to Care
    http://www.kff.org/uninsured/access.cfm

    Profile of the Uninsured
    http://www.kff.org/uninsured/profile.cfm

    Reform Proposals
    http://www.kff.org/uninsured/reform.cfm

    Trends in Coverage
    http://www.kff.org/uninsured/trends.cfm
Recommended Reading:
  1. Quadagno, J. (2006). One Nation, Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. (book available in Program Library)
Recommended Movie:
  1. Moore, M. (Director). (2007). Sicko [Motion picture]. United States: Dog Eat Dog Films.

Session Three:Variation in Outcomes and Quality of Care

Thursday, September 6, 2007 , 2:00pm-4:00pm
Factuly: Stephen Shortell

  1. Williams, S.C., et al. (2005). Quality of Care in U.S. Hospitals as Reflected by Standardized Measures, 2002-2004. New England Journal of Medicine, 353 (3), 255-64.
  2. McGlynn, E.A., et al. (2003). The Quality of Health Care Delivered to Adults in the United States . New England Journal of Medicine, 348 (26), 2635-45.

Session Four: Health Programs Budgeting at the National Level

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 , 2:00pm-4:00pm
Faculty: John Ellwood

This session has two goals. First, to explain how we budget for heath care at the federal (national) level; for this purpose read readings 1 and 2. The second purpose is to examine whether, and if so why, support for “liberal” health care and other social legislation has declined in the past several decades. Required Reading :

  1. Ellwood, J.W. (1982). Chapter 3: How Congress Controls Expenditures. In Ellwood, J.W. (Ed.), Reductions in US Domestic Spending (pp. 21-31). New Brunswick , NJ : Transaction Books.
  2. Aaron, H.J., & Meyer, J. (2005). Chapter 4: Health. In Rivlin, A., & Sawhill, I. (Eds.), Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2005: Meeting the Long-Run Challenge (pp. 73-97). Washington , DC : The Brookings Institution.
  3. Hacker, J.S., & Pierson, P. (2005). Abandoning the Middle: The Bush Tax Cuts and the Limits of Democratic Control. Perspectives on Politics, 3(1), 33-53. Skim pp. 33-53, read pp. 43-49 more carefully.
  4. Skocpol, T., & Keenan, P.S. (2005). Chapter 2: Cross Pressures: The Contemporary Politics of Health Reform. In Mechanic, D., Rogut, L.B., Colby , D.C. , & Knickman, J.R. (Eds.), Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care (pp.26-36). New Brunswick , NJ : Rutgers University Press. (book distributed)
  5. Feder, J., & Moran, D.W. (2007). Chapter 7: Cost Containment and the Politics of Health Care Reform. In Rivlin, A.M., & Antos, J.R. (Eds.), Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007: The Health Spending Challenge (pp. 173-92). Washington , DC : Brookings Institution Press. (book distributed)
  6. Butler , S.M. (2007). Chapter 8: Building Public Support for Slowing the Growth of Health Care Spending. In Rivlin, A.M., & Antos, J.R. (Eds.), Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007: The Health Spending Challenge (pp. 193-218). Washington , DC : Brookings Institution Press. (book distributed)

 

Session Five: Health Savings Accounts Thursday, September 13, 2007 , 2:00pm-4:00pm
Factuly: William Dow

Required Reading :

  1. Baicker, K., Dow, W.H., & Wolfson, J. (2006). Health Savings Accounts: Implications for Health Spending. National Tax Journal, 59(3), 463-75.
  2. Baicker, K., Dow, W.H., & Wolfson, J. Lowering the Barriers to Consumer Directed Health Care: Responding to Concerns. Forthcoming, Health Affairs.

 

Session Six: How Do We Know When We Have Too Many or Too Few Doctors?

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 , 2:00pm-4:00pm
Factuly: Richard Scheffler

Required Reading :

  1. Scheffler, R.M. (1996). Life in a Kaleidoscope: The Impact of Managed Care on the US Health Care Workforce and a New Model for the Delivery of Primary Care. In Donaldson, M.S., Yordy, K.D., Lohr, K.N., & Vanselow, N.A. (Eds.), Primary Care: America’s Health in a New Era. Washington , DC : National Academy Press.
  2. Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2004). Chapter 4: Health Services Professionals. In Delivering Health Care in America : A Systems Approach, Third Edition (pp. 117-48). Massachusetts : Jones and Bartlett Publishers. (book distributed)
  3. Scheffler, R.M. Chapter 1: The Supply Cycle of Doctors. In Is There a Doctor in the House? Market Signals and the Physician Supply Cycle. Forthcoming, Stanford University Press, 2008.

[Back to top]