Details
This book takes the interaction between bioethics and health policy to a new level. Moving beyond principles and normative frameworks, bioethicists writing in the volume consider the actual policy problems faced by health-care systems, while policy makers reflect on the moral values inherent in both the process and content of health policy. The book provides a history of the values implicit in US health policy, a discussion of the federal and state roles in policy making, an ethical examination of the social goals expressed through various policies, an analysis of the role of public opinion in the creation of health policy, and an exploration of the value of the private sector in health policy. In addition, the authors examine some of the major ethical controversies in health policy, such as the challenge of balancing ethical concerns with economic realities, the need to allocate scarce health resources fairly, the call for heightened accountability, and the impact of carious policies on vulnerable populations. The book concludes with an examination of the ethical issues in health services research, including the threats to privacy that arise in such research. To a greater extent than any previous volume, it establishes a stong connection between the disciplines of medical ethics and health policy.
Introduction
Part 1: Identifying the goals of health care
1: Ends and means: the goals of health care
2: Justice, health, and health policy
Part 2: Connecting ethics and health policy
3: What ethics can contribute to health policy
4: Health care policy in the US in the 20th Century
5: Just deliberation about health care
Part 3: Examining the ethics of how policy is made
6: The reality of public policy making
7: When public opinion counts: inserting public opinion into health
8: Medical ethics in the courts
9: Health policy making: the role of the federal government
10: Health policy and state initiatives
11: Private sector incentives and ethical health care
Part 4: Ethical controversies in health policy
Resource allocation
12: Patient v. population: resolving the ethical dilemmas posed by treating patients as members of populations
Accountability
13: Accountability: regulating health care as a public good
14: Perspectives on accountability: past, present and future
Vulnerable populations
15: Health resources allocations for vulnerable populations
16: Health policy, vulnerability and vulnerable populations
Ethical considerations in health services research
17: Values in research: picking research priorities ethically
18: Ethical considerations in conducting health care research: protecting privacy
Edited by Marion Danis, Head, Section on Ethics and Health Policy, Department of Clinical Bioethics, Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, Carolyn Clancy, Director, Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, Maryland, USA, and Larry R. Churchill, Professor of Social Medicine, Co-Director, Center for Health Ethics and Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
"This book provides a broad and at the same time rigorous introduction to the role of ethics in health policy. It is an essential read for anyone with health care policy making responsibilities, but also interesting, enlightening and useful read for health care providers, personnel and for patients trying to make sense of the way in which health care is distributed." - Public Health
"The book contains a stimulating mix of perspectives, and includes chapters by some of the 'big names' from the fields of philosophy, political science, and policy studies. This book provides a waelth of material, much of it highly accessible to a genral audience... it will be a useful source for students and researchers in health policy and social medicine, and a useful addition to many reading lists."
