Patients as Policy Actors offers groundbreaking accounts of one of the health field's most important developments of the last fifty years--the rise of more consciously patient-centered care and policymaking. The authors in this volume illustrate, from multiple disciplinary perspectives, the unexpected ways that patients can matter as both agents and objects of health care policy yet nonetheless too often remain silent, silenced, misrepresented, or ignored. The volume concludes with a unique epilogue outlining principles for more effectively integrating patient perspectives into a pluralistic conception of policy-making. With the recent enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, patients' and consumers' roles in American health care require more than ever the careful analysis and attention exemplified by this innovative volume.

Numerous case examples illustrate fundamental topics such as cost containment, health insurance, primary care, and physician and hospital payment. In addition, this book does a superior job linking policy issues to the practice of medicine. The second edition features a brand new chapter on payment in managed care.

Healthcare has undergone major changes in personalization, marketization, and digitalization in recent decades. Through conceptual and empirical studies from a variety of healthcare contexts, this book explores the role of activists and civil society in defining and defending the collective good in healthcare and its changing landscape.---

In a work that spans the twentieth century, Nancy Tomes questions the popular--and largely unexamined--idea that in order to get good health care, people must learn to shop for it. Remaking the American Patient explores the consequences of the consumer economy and American medicine having come of age at exactly the same time. Tracing the robust development of advertising, marketing, and public relations within the medical profession and the vast realm we now think of as "health care," Tomes considers what it means to be a "good" patient. As she shows, this history of the coevolution of medicine and consumer culture tells us much about our current predicament over health care in the United States. Understanding where the shopping model came from, why it was so long resisted in medicine, and why it finally triumphed in the late twentieth century helps explain why, despite striking changes that seem to empower patients, so many Americans remain unhappy and confused about their status as patients today.

Bringing together an international selection of leading scholars and representatives from patients’ organizations, this comprehensive collection explores the interaction between civil society groups and biomedical science, technology development, and research politics. This volume is an important reference for academics and researchers with an interest in the sociology of health and illness, science and technology studies, the sociology of knowledge or healthcare management and research, as well as medical researchers and those involved with health-related civil society organizations.

Featuring analysis of cutting-edge healthcare issues and first-person stories, Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care, 7th Edition is the leader in helping students develop skills in influencing policy in today's changing health care environment. Approximately 150 expert contributors present a wide range of topics in this classic text, providing a more complete background than can be found in any other policy textbook on the market. Discussions include the latest updates on conflict management, health economics, lobbying, the use of media, and working with communities for change. With these insights and strategies, you'll be prepared to play a leadership role in the four spheres in which nurses are politically active: the workplace, government, professional organizations, and the community. - Comprehensive coverage of healthcare policies and politics provides a broader understanding of nursing leadership and political activism, as well as complex business and financial issues. - Taking Action essays include personal accounts of how nurses have participated in politics and what they have accomplished. - Expert authors make up a virtual Nursing Who's Who in healthcare policy, sharing information and personal perspectives gained in the crafting of healthcare policy. - Winner of several American Journal of Nursing "Book of the Year" awards! - NEW! Nine new chapters ensure you have the most up-to-date information on key topics such as ethical dimensions of policy and politics, patient engagement, public health, women's reproductive health, emergency preparedness, new health insurance exchanges, and much more. - NEW! The latest information and perspectives are provided by nursing leaders who influenced health care reform, including the Affordable Care Act. - NEW! Emphasis on evidence-based policy throughout the text. - NEW! A list of web links is included in most chapters for further study.

Featuring analysis of cutting-edge healthcare issues and first-person stories, Policy & Politics in Nursing and Health Care, 7th Edition is the leader in helping students develop skills in influencing policy in today's changing health care environment. Approximately 150 expert contributors present a wide range of topics in this classic text, providing a more complete background than can be found in any other policy textbook on the market. Discussions include the latest updates on conflict management, health economics, lobbying, the use of media, and working with communities for change. With these insights and strategies, you'll be prepared to play a leadership role in the four spheres in which nurses are politically active: the workplace, government, professional organizations, and the community. Comprehensive coverage of healthcare policies and politics provides a broader understanding of nursing leadership and political activism, as well as complex business and financial issues. Taking Action essays include personal accounts of how nurses have participated in politics and what they have accomplished. Expert authors make up a virtual Nursing Who's Who in healthcare policy, sharing information and personal perspectives gained in the crafting of healthcare policy. Winner of several American Journal of Nursing "Book of the Year" awards! NEW! Nine new chapters ensure you have the most up-to-date information on key topics such as ethical dimensions of policy and politics, patient engagement, public health, women's reproductive health, emergency preparedness, new health insurance exchanges, and much more. NEW! The latest information and perspectives are provided by nursing leaders who influenced health care reform, including the Affordable Care Act. NEW! Emphasis on evidence-based policy throughout the text. NEW! A list of web links is included in most chapters for further study.

Unevenly distributed resources and rising costs have become enduring problems in the American health care system. Health care is more expensive in the United States than in other wealthy nations, and access varies significantly across space and social classes. James A. Schafer Jr. shows that these problems are not inevitable features of modern medicine, but instead reflect the informal organization of health care in a free market system in which profit and demand, rather than social welfare and public health needs, direct the distribution and cost of crucial resources. The Business of Private Medical Practice is a case study of how market forces influenced the office locations and career paths of doctors in one early twentieth-century city, Philadelphia, the birthplace of American medicine. Without financial incentives to locate in poor neighborhoods, Philadelphia doctors instead clustered in central business districts and wealthy suburbs. In order to differentiate their services in a competitive marketplace, they also began to limit their practices to particular specialties, thereby further restricting access to primary care. Such trends worsened with ongoing urbanization. Illustrated with numerous maps of the Philadelphia neighborhoods he studies, Schafer’s work helps underscore the role of economic self-interest in shaping the geography of private medical practice and the growth of medical specialization in the United States.

This book explores the extent to which globalisation and commercialisation relate to current and emerging health policies. It also looks at the implications for citizens, patients and social rights, as well as how policy making interacts with the interests of global and European trade and economic policies.

When cannabis tincture was withdrawn from the medical establishment in the UK in 1973, cannabis became regulated solely as an illicit drug. Within a decade cannabis-based drugs were back in the clinic. The UK is one of the biggest producers of medicinal cannabis, but few patients have access to these medicines. High-profile cases of parents campaigning for access to cannabis oil for severe and rare forms of epilepsy in their children are the most recent in a long line of controversies over cannabis and cannabis-based medicines. With mounting questions about patient access, the effectiveness of international drug control systems, and the role of expert advice, it is crucial to understand how we have arrived at this situation. While the historical literature has focused on cannabis as an illicit substance, Remedicalizing Cannabis considers the botanical product and its potential to yield medical applications. Investigating the remedicalization of cannabis, Taylor explores the process whereby boundaries shift between illicit drug and licit medicine. Basing her arguments on archival material from expert committees, researchers, and activists and in-depth interviews with key players, Suzanne Taylor traces the issues and interests involved in this process, demonstrating the important roles of changing scientific knowledge, expert advice, industry, clinical trials, and patient activism. Remedicalizing Cannabis investigates the evolving tensions that have brought us to the current situation and demonstrates the role of history in understanding today’s debates about cannabis.