Governing Health: The Politics of Health Policy

by William G. Weissert, Carol S. Weissert

Governing Health examines health care policy from a political perspective, describing how Congress, the president, special interest groups, bureaucracy, and state governments help define health policy problems and find politically feasible solutions. William G. Weissert and Carol S. Weissert provide a highly readable and comprehensive synthesis of political science research on how government and private institutions affect the policy process. Extensive reviews of the policies that have governed health care since Lyndon Johnson's administration are capped off with a prognosis for the future. Updates to the fourth edition of Governing Health include
• new examples and theory perspectives
• recent statistics
• discussion of the 2010 Obama health reform

Genres: Public Policy, Health

408 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2003

Reviews

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a class I will be teaching. It provides an in-depth look at policy making in the US as applied to health and healthcare. However, I found the narrative to lack clear flow and direction, and often the key points were buried within the details of the text. In addition, I felt that while it discussed the players and much of the process, that more coverage could have been provided to different policies and how they were developed, passed and implemented. Strangely, I found the final chapters the most straightforward to read, with clear points, examples to illustrate them, and very easy to follow summaries in the conclusions.

[tina]

didn’t completely finish this but counting it for my reading goal #sorryyyyyy

anyways the government is sooo dumb basically

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I enjoy reading it? Did it help me pass the first half of the semester? Yes. 3.5 ⭐️