Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair: Health Care and the Good for masses

Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair: Health Care and the Good .
Our country may be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but our citizens rank near the bottom in health status. How can this be - when we proudly exclaim that our healthcare is the best in the world?
Americans have lower life expectancy, more infant mortalities and higher adolescent death rates than most other advanced industrial nations - and even some developing countries. Though Americans are famous for tolerating great inequality in wealth, the gross inequities in the health system are less well recognized. The lack of health insurance among one group does negatively impact the health and wealth of everyone else.
In Healthy, Wealthy and Fair, a distinguished group of health policy experts chart the stark disparities in health and wealth in the United States. These authors explain how the inequities arise, why they persist, and what makes them worse. Growing income inequality, high poverty rates, and inadequate health care coverage: all three trends help account for the U.S.'s health troubles.
The corrosive effects of market ideology and government stalemate, the contributors argue, have also proved a powerful obstacle to effective and more egalitarian solutions.
This book not only educates and enlightens, but may serve as a clarion call for involvement and commitment from the informed to end the stalemate over health reform. Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair outlines concrete policy proposals for reform - tapping bold new ideas as well as incremental changes to existing programs. This important work will be indispensable to all those who care about our people's health, inequality, and American democracy.
"Inequalities in wealth, income, knowledge and class cripple democratic citizens; inequalities in health care destroy lives. There is no more important issue for America than health care, and no more pressing need that that of health care reform. In Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair, distinguished health policy experts offer a clear portrait of the impact of market economics on fair health care and make a powerful case for bold health care reform. Vital reading for social scientists, policy makers and citizens alike." - Benjamin R. Barber, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, and author of Strong Democracy and Jihad vs. McWorld
James A. Morone is Professor of Political Science at Brown University. His most recent book is Hellfire Nation.Lawrence R. Jacobs is McKnight Land-Grant Professor at the University of Minnesota, an adjunct professor at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute, and director of the 2004 Elections Project. His most recent book is Politicians Don't Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness. Contributions in this book include:
Health and Wealth in the Good Society, James A. Morone and Lawrence R. Jacobs
Why the USA Is Not Number One in Health, Ichiro Kawachi
Health Disparities in the Land of Equality, Lawrence R. Jacobs
How Market Ideology Guarantees Racial Inequality, Deborah Stone
The Damages of the Market Panacea, Mark Schlesinger
Organized Labor's Incredible, Shrinking Social Vision, Marie Gottschalk
Interest Groups and the Reproduction of Inequality, Connie A. Nathanson
The Congressional Graveyard for Health Care Reform, Mark A. Peterson
Courts, Inequality, and Health Care, Peter D. Jacobson and Elisabeth Selvin
Medicaid at the Crossroads, Colleen Grogan and Erik Patashnik
Kids and Bureaucrats at the Grass Roots, Elizabeth H. Kilbreth and James A. Morone
Incrementalism Adds Up?, Lawrence D. Brown
What Government Can Do, Benjamin I. Page
Prospering in the Age of Global Markets, Lawrence R. Jacobs and James A. Morone
"Americans want everyone to have access to decent health care -- yet in an era of rising economic inequality, our country is moving ever further from that ideal. Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair asks why this has happened, and illuminates the way forward. The arguments assembled here are not timid. Many readers will heartily agree. Others will demur. But all will be enlightened and engaged." - Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University, author of The Missing Middle: Working Families and the Future of American Social Policy

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(information from the publisher)