The Road to Nowhere
Hacker, a former Health Policy Fellow at Harvard, scrutinizes the 1990s health-care reform debate in terms of current theories on agenda setting, the political and institutional constraints on change, and the elements of political leadership. He explores stages in increasing public concerns about health care; examines the neoclassical critique of U.S. health care and the institutions (from HMOs to the Jackson Hole Group) it produced and the growth of an alternative, "liberal synthesis"; traces the evolution, within the Clinton campaign, transition, and task force, of a form of "managed competition," which its advocates confidently viewed as a perfect compromise, a true "New Democrat" road to both universal coverage and cost control; and analyzes the bitter debate that proposal stimulated. Defeat was not inevitable, Hacker insists, but one important lesson is that "policy analysis is a flawed mechanism for achieving political compromise." Not essential but will circulate where readers are actively involved in the health-care debate.Mary Carroll--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.