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In the last 35 years, health care in the US has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Americans view access to health care as important and take pride in their excellent medical care technology. However, there is growing consensus that the US health care system is in crisis - but there is far less agreement on what to do about it. This book examines the major controversies confronting American society, health care professionals and policy makers: access to health care, costs and financing health care and the quality of health care. Kronenfeld discusses whether the system can solve these problems or whether there is a health care system at all.
List of contents
Introduction
Disease Patterns, Physical Health and AIDS
Mental Health Concerns and Behavioral Health
Reproductive Health Concerns and Abortion
Aging and Long-Term Care
Providers of Care
Health Professions and Health Facilities
Costs of Health Care
Quality of Health Care Technology
Access to Health Care Services and Suggestions for Health Care Reform
About the author
Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld is a professor in the Sociology Program in the School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University. Her research areas are medical sociology and aging and the life course with a special focus on health policy, health care utilization, and health behavior. She has recently published Medicare by Greenwood Press (2011) and serves as the editor of the research annual Research in the Sociology of Health and Health Care published each year by Emerald Press. She is co-editor of Health and Associate Editor In Chief of American Journal of Health Promotion. Her current research interests in addition to health policy include research on gender and health, and research on aspects of obesity as linked to social factors.
