"This scholarly and readable book describes how the U.S. Congress functions as it deliberates and develops health policy. Chapters cover the committee organization and jurisdictions, the budgeting process, how information informs decisions, congressional oversight functions, and case study analysis of the failed Clinton health reform plan. The book is a final product of a project to assess and improve the way Congress functions. It offers a nonpartisan, well-researched, and current view of how Congress is organized and equipped to approach and determine health policy. The editors and authors are all experts in their field, and they present a detailed and well informed analysis. This book will be useful to individuals (healthcare professionals, advanced students, scholars) who have an interest in understanding the complex dynamics and influences on health policy. It offers a thoughtful, behind-the-scenes perspective that will be appreciated by those from the health care sector as well as from political science and policy analysis. Each chapter is clearly written with useful notes. Despite multiple authors, there is no duplication of material, and the text is well edited. Each chapter takes a fairly complicated topic and presents an interesting discussion and analysis, drawing on fairly current examples of health issues (AIDS funding, Medicare hospital and physician payment reform and oversight, the 1989 Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act and the Clinton health care reform effort). This book represents a scholarly and timely addition to the field of health policy studies. It can serve as a reference or an informed text on how Congress works and the complex interplay of factors thathave shaped its efforts to deliberate and establish national health policy and oversight."--Judith A. Cooksey
Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at AEI and a regular contributor to Roll Call. Thomas E. Mann is the W. Averell Harriman Senior Fellow in American Governance at the Brookings Institution.
AEI's Election Watch series returns in December 2007 for its fourteenth season, bringing together AEI's nationally renowned team of political analysts and other commentators. These sessions are essential for anyone who wants to understand the elections.
Public Opinion Snapshot - Who Will Win?
Regardless of who you support, and trying to be as objective as possible, who do you think will win the election in November . . . ? (October)
The Future of Red, Blue, and Purple America is a joint project of the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution that focuses on the impact of demographic and geographic change on the 2008 elections and beyond. Selected papers from the upcoming Brookings Institution Press book and presentations as well as audio, video, and summary files from the conference held at AEI on February 28 are available here.
AEI and Brookings have launched the Election Reform Project. The program is a joint effort to monitor the implementation of the Help America Vote Act and to develop a bipartisan policy agenda for further improvements in the administration of elections.
