The Health Care Safety Net in a Post-Reform World

Mark A Hall editor Sara Rosenbaum editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Rutgers University Press

Published:3rd Aug '12

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Health Care Safety Net in a Post-Reform World cover

The Health Care Safety Net in a Post-Reform World examines how national health care reform will impact safety net programs that serve low-income and uninsured patients. The “safety net” refers to the collection of hospitals, clinics, and doctors who treat disadvantaged people, including those without insurance, regardless of their ability to pay. Despite comprehensive national health care reform, over twenty million people will remain uninsured. And many of those who obtain insurance from reform will continue to face shortages of providers in their communities willing or able to serve them. As the demand for care grows with expanded insurance, so will the pressure on an overstretched safety net.

This book, with contributions from leading health care scholars, is the first comprehensive assessment of the safety net in over a decade. Rather than view health insurance and the health care safety net as alternatives to each other, it examines their potential to be complementary aspects of a broader effort to achieve equity and quality in health care access. It also considers whether the safety net can be improved and strengthened to a level that can provide truly universal access, both through expanded insurance and the creation of a well-integrated and reasonably supported network of direct health care access for the uninsured.

Seeing safety net institutions as key components of post-health care reform in the United States—as opposed to stop-gap measures or as part of the problem—is a bold idea. And as presented in this volume, it is an idea whose time has come.

"This is a really important, well-organized, and timely book by some of the best thinkers on the subject. It would be hard to gather a more knowledgeable group on this topic." -- Julie Fairman * Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing *
"A comprehensive must-read for those who truly want to understand the US health care system. Hall and Rosenbaum dissect the hodge-podge of US safety net providers and complex financing in the only high-income country in the world that does not provide universal coverage to its citizens." 
-- Lynn A. Blewett * University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Health Policy and Management *
"Given the current debate on health care policies in the US, this volume is both timely and informative. It is also very accessible to readers without a background in the health care industry. Highly recommended."
* Choice *
"The Health Care Safety Net in a Post-Reform World provides food for thought for policy makers and providers striving to understand and strengthen the safety net's post-reform role." * Health Affairs *
"This is a really important, well-organized, and timely book by some of the best thinkers on the subject. It would be hard to gather a more knowledgeable group on this topic." -- Julie Fairman * Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing *
"A comprehensive must-read for those who truly want to understand the US health care system. Hall and Rosenbaum dissect the hodge-podge of US safety net providers and complex financing in the only high-income country in the world that does not provide universal coverage to its citizens." 
-- Lynn A. Blewett * University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Health Policy and Management *
"Given the current debate on health care policies in the US, this volume is both timely and informative. It is also very accessible to readers without a background in the health care industry. Highly recommended."
* Choice *
"The Health Care Safety Net in a Post-Reform World provides food for thought for policy makers and providers striving to understand and strengthen the safety net's post-reform role." * Health Affairs *

ISBN: 9780813553054

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 21mm

Weight: unknown

296 pages