The Politics of Health Policy The U.S. Reforms, 1980 - 1994

This book analyzes the federal health policies followed by Reagan, Bush, and Clinton and by the Democratic-controlled Congress. The book shows the connection between the crisis of health care and the correlation of class forces in America. He also explains and evaluates the health care reforms put forward by the Clinton administration, describing the political process and forces behind those reforms. The book challenges the major positions held in the social and political sciences regarding the nature of power in western capitalist developed countries and its impact on public policy. In great detail and with extensive documentation, the text shows how the welfare state continues to be extremely popular, that the causes of our economic predicament cannot be attributed to the welfare state and that class, continues to have an undiminished relevance in explaining public policies in general and health policies in particular.

Vicente Navarro is a Professor of Health Policy, Sociology and Policy Studies at the Johns Hopkins University and is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Health Services. He has been president of the International Association of Health Policy, and consultant to many governments and international agencies such as the United Nations, UNICEF and WHO. He has received many awards for his scholarship, including the John Kosa Memorial prize.