Medicare and Medicaid at 50: America's Entitlement Programs in the Age of Affordable Care

by Alan B. Cohen, David C. Colby, Keith A. Wailoo, Julian E. Zelizer

Overview

For fifty years, Medicare and Medicaid have stood at the center of a contentious debate surrounding American government, citizenship, and health care entitlement. In Medicare and Medicaid at 50, leading scholars in politics, government, economics, health policy, and history offer a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of these programs and their impact on society — from their origins in the Great Society era to the current battles over the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare").

These highly accessible essays examine Medicare and Medicaid from their origins as programs for the elderly and poor to their later role as a safety net for the middle class. Along the way, they have served as touchstones for heated debates about economics, social welfare, and the role of government.

Medicare and Medicaid at 50 addresses key questions for understanding the past and future of health policy in America, including:

· What were the origins for these initiatives, and how were they transformed over time?
· What marks have Medicare and Medicaid left on society?
· In what ways have these programs produced innovation, even in eras of retrenchment?
· How did Medicaid, once regarded as a poor person's program, expand its benefits and coverage over the decades to become the platform for the ACA's future expansion?

The volume's contributors go on to examine the powerful role of courts in these transformations, along with the shifting roles of Congress, public opinion, and state governors in the programs' ongoing evolution.

From Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama on the left, and from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush on the right, American political leaders have tied their political fortunes to the fate of America's entitlement programs; Medicare and Medicaid at 50 helps explain why, and how those ongoing debates are likely to shape the future of the Affordable Care Act.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190231545
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/26/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Alan B. Cohen is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at Boston University School of Management, where he directs the national program office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research and Scholars in Health Policy Research Programs. He is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the principal author of Technology in American Health Care: Policy Directions for Effective Evaluation and Management (University of Michigan, 2004).

David C. Colby is Vice President of Policy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a noted health services research and policy expert. His published research has focused on Medicaid and Medicare, media coverage of AIDS, political science, and civil rights. He has worked in government on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, on the Physician Payment Review Commission, and at the Congressional Budget Office, and is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Keith A. Wailoo is the Townsend Martin Professor of History and Public Affairs and Vice Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. His recent books include: Pain: A Political History (Johns Hopkins, 2014); How Cancer Crossed the Color Line (Oxford University, 2011); and The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine: Ethnicity and Innovation in Tay-Sachs, Cystic Fibrosis, and Sickle Cell Disease (Johns Hopkins, 2006). He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2007.

Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a Fellow at New America. He publishes a popular weekly column for CNN.com His most recent book is The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society (Penguin Press, 2015).

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Medicare, Medicaid, and the Moral Test of Government
Alan B. Cohen, David C. Colby, Keith A. Wailoo, & Julian E. Zelizer

Part I: Origins, Vision, and the Challenge to Implementation

1: The Contentious Origins of Medicare and Medicaid
Julian E. Zelizer

2: Civil Rights and Medicare: Historical Convergence and Continuing Legacy
David Barton Smith

3: The Early Days of Medicare and Medicaid: A Personal Reflection
Rashi Fein

4: The Road Not Taken: What Happened to Medicare for All?
Jonathan Oberlander and Theodore R. Marmor

Part II: The Remaking of Values, Relationships, and Society

5: The Transformation of Medicaid from Poor Law Legacy to Middle-Class Entitlement?
Jill Quadagno

6: How the Courts Created the Medicaid Entitlement
Sara Rosenbaum

7: Medicaid and the Social Transformations of American Elders
Mark Schlesinger

Part III: Retrenchment, Reform, and Reaction

8: Third Rail of Politics: The Rise and Fall of Medicare's Untouchability
Mark A. Peterson

9: Medicare Innovations in the War Over the Key to the US Treasury
Uwe E. Reinhardt

10: Medicaid Rising: The Perils and Potential of Federalism
Frank J. Thompson

11: Independence and Freedom: Public Opinion and the Politics of Medicare and Medicaid
Andrea Louise Campbell

Part IV: The Road to Affordable Care

12: The Era of Big Government: Why it Never Ended
Keith A. Wailoo

13: The Missing Piece: Medicare, Medicaid, and Long-Term Care
Judith Feder

14: From Servant to Master to Partner?: Medicare, Cost Control, and the Future of American Health Care
Jacob S. Hacker

Part V: Looking Ahead

15: Medicare in American Political History: The Rise and Fall of Social Insurance
James Morone and Elisabeth Fauquert

16: Built to Last? : Policy Entrenchment and Regret in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act
Paul Starr

Conclusion: The World that Medicare and Medicaid Made
Alan B. Cohen, David C. Colby, Keith A. Wailoo, and Julian E. Zelizer

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
A Few Facts About Medicare and Medicaid
Acknowledgments
About the Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This book provides keen insights into two pillars of America's health insurance system, Medicare and Medicaid. The essays by leading health policy experts describe fifty years of evolution in these landmark programs. This collection of essays will be an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to understand the history of health policy in the United States." — Congressman Henry Waxman

"Medicare and Medicaid are massive and complex programs that are most often studied in pieces-how this program affects that constituent group, how these providers are reacting to that policy, etc. In this new book, these two programs are examined from the varied perspectives of law, politics, history, economics, and sociology. This kind of eclectic approach is important in developing a deeper understanding of these programs and their potential for the future." — Darin Gordon, President of the National Association of Medicaid Directors (2013-2014)

"In this remarkable collection many of our most distinguished analysts of U.S. health politics and policy offer fresh, provocative, and illuminating commentaries on the origins and development of Medicare and Medicaid in the context of the Affordable Care Act. Scholars, students, and citizens have much to learn from this insightful volume." — Eric M. Patashnik, Director, Center for Health Policy, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

"This volume, with contributions from the leading practitioners in health policy, does a masterful job of explaining the politics and history of the Medicare and Medicaid programs on the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary. From these perceptive essays, readers learn why Medicare and Medicaid have survived for half a century and why they must figure into any future discussion of health care reform." — Edward Berkowitz, Professor of History and Public Policy, George Washington University

"Fifty years ago, Medicare and Medicaid were enacted to help America meet the moral test of caring for its most vulnerable citizens-the children, the elderly, the sick, the needy, and the disabled. This volume of essays explores whether or not Medicare and Medicaid today remain true to that vision. Written for a general audience, this book is a 'must read' for policymakers and private citizens alike." — Donald Berwick, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2010-2011)

"Health-care policy is as difficult to master as it is vital to the country's future; there is no better place for politicians and students to begin their education on the subject than this judiciously assembled, thoughtfully edited, and lucidly written collection." — Foreign Affairs

"Both serious and casual students of health care policy and medical organization will find this book worthwhile and eminently readable." -the American Library Association

From the Publisher