Medicaid Politics and Policy

What makes this successor to Medicaid Politics and Policy such an achievement and so worthy of praise is the authors' ability to explain Medicaid's evolution and resilience over five decades while placing its remarkable story within the broader context of national health reform. --Sara Rosenbaum, George Washington University Medicaid Politics and Policy, now updated to include the Affordable Care Act changes, provides the most thorough and comprehensive review of the history, evolution, and dynamic role of Medicaid over the last 50 years. . . . It is a must-read for policymakers, analysts, and health reformers. --Diane Rowland, Kaiser Family Foundation The Medicaid program is at the very epicenter of the political and policy tensions between the federal government and states. Smith and Moore brilliantly chronicle the ebb and flow of this tension over time in this jointly funded $500 billion health care entitlement program for low-income individuals. . . . I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the evolution of health care policy in a broader political context. --Raymond Scheppach, University of Virginia Smith and Moore tell the story [of Medicaid] with rigor and skill, based on over 200 interviews that provided insights and anecdotes never before seen in print. The story is now updated to include the ACA, which brought the most significant changes to Medicaid since its inception. . . . Medicaid Politics and Policy is the most engaging, complete and up-to-date history of Medicaid yet. --Vernon K. Smith, Health Management Associates On the first edition: Perhaps only a political and policy enthusiast like me would really enjoy this book. --Steven S. Sharfstein, Psychiatric Services On the first edition: This book is going to be a classic (and standard reference) in the field. --Dr. Lloyd S. Etheredge, Director, Government Learning Project On the first edition: Experts discuss the interface of U.S. politics and health policies. This case study of Medicaid illustrates how good intentions to create health policy for vulnerable populations in the U.S. have been and continue to be influenced by state and federal economic issues; societal views of poverty, disability, old age, and charity care; and changing views of federalism, depending on the ruling political parties in office at stage and national levels....Interviews with key players and historical documents illustrate three phases of Medicaid implementation and growth: 1966-81; 1981-95; and 1995-2007. Extensive references, bibliographic sources, and glossary. Recommended. --J.E. Thompson, Choice On the first edition: [S]tudents of health politics and policy will find this book the go to source for understudying how Medicaid became the nation's go to program for filling the health system's myriad gaps. Today, Medicaid expansions are fundamental to plans in, for example, Massachusetts and Vermont that aspire to universal coverage and in the health agenda of the leading Democratic presidential candidates. --Lawrence D. Brown and Michael S. Sparer, Health Affairs On the first edition: Offering a panoramic sweep of the Medicaid program and its place in the U.S. health care policy and politics, Medicaid Politics and Policy: 1965-2007 represents an important addition to the health policy literature... Using an approach that organizes the story of Medicaid into distinct chapters that help explain this most complex of all social welfare programs, Medicaid Politics and Policy also illuminates the broader social, political, and economic currents that enveloped and that continue to swirl around the program... Medicaid is no less than the fundamental means by which a society that values markets in health care has made a place at the health care table for the poor, the sick, and the medically underserved. --Sara Rosenbaum, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law