Health Policy, Federalism, and the American States

First published in 1997, this volume emerged in the ongoing struggle between those favouring centralized and those favouring decentralized government, and has three goals: 1) To illustrate how theories of federalism and intergovernmental relations can provide a useful framework for examining how to 'divide up the job in the health care area'; 2) To assess the capacity of the states to actually implement health care policy changes; 3) To weigh the merits of alternative visions of the future roles of states and the federal government in health care policy. In the ongoing struggle between those favoring centralized and those favoring decentralized government, health care policy is an important issue. This book has three goals: (1) to illustrate how theories of federalism and intergovernmental relations can provide a useful framework for examining how to "divide up the job" in the health care area, (2) to assess the capacity of the states to actually implement health care policy changes, and (3) to weigh the merits of alternative visions of the future role of states and the federal government in health care policy.