ABOUT THIS BOOK

Readings in American Health Care is an introduction to the historical development and current status of a wide variety of health care topics. The readings, written by historians, sociologists, economists, physicians, nurses, and public health researchers, are organized in sections:
•    Basic Concepts: mortality trends, concepts of disease, changes in medical therapy
•    Public Health: AIDS, cigarette smoking, preventive medicine, fluoridation
•    Health Care Professions: cardiology, pathology, women in medicine, nursing, podiatry, midwives
•    Health Care Organizations: hospitals, HMOs
•    Mental Illness
•    Financing Health Care
•    Medical Education
•    Issues: abortion, ethical issues, cancer control, prenatal care, home care, the pharmaceutical industry
•    Background Readings: American medicine from 1920 to midcentury.

    The readings were chosen especially for course use in history, sociology, public health, and related fields, but can also provide useful background reading for anyone interested or involved in American health care. Each selection includes an introduction, questions for the reader, and a bibliography. Scholars and students alike will find the book an invaluable resource.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

William G. Rothstein is professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is the author of American Physicians in the Nineteenth Century: From Sects to Science and American Medical Schools and the Practice of Medicine.

REVIEWS

“Rothstein’s introductions to each selection provide historical context and direct students to the selection’s salient themes and hypotheses. There are fine suggestions for additional reading, and the study questions are a useful mix of the factual and the thought-provoking. ”—Stuart Galishoff, Georgia State University

“Intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level students.”
—Journal of Economic Literature

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Introduction

Part 1.
Health Care from 1920 to Mid-Century

1.
Twenty-Five Years in Country Practice

Hughes, David M.

2.
The Health of Regionville: What the People Thought and Did about It

Koos, Earl Lomon

3.
Organized Medicine and the Public Health Institute of Chicago

Seipp, Conrad

4.
Fit for Work: The Introduction of Physical Examinations in Industry

Nugent, Angela

5.
The Cost of Caring: The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's Visiting Nurse Service, 1909–1953

Hamilton, Diane

Part 2.
Basic Concepts

6.
Trends in Mortality in the Twentieth Century

Rothstein, William G.

7.
Disease as a Social Concept

Rothstein, William G.

8.
Changes in Medical Therapy During the Past Half Century

Beeson, Paul B.

Part 3.
Public Health

9.
The Resistible Rise of Preventive Medicine

Stone, Deborah A.

10.
America's Longest War: The Fight over Fluoridation, 1950–

McNeil, Donald R.

11.
The Cigarette, Risk, and American Culture

Brandt, Allan M.

12.
Aids in Historical Perspective: Four Lessons from the History of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Brandt, Allan M.

Part 4.
Health Care Professions

13.
The Changing Face of Twentieth-Century American Cardiology

Howell, Joel D.

14.
Pathology: The Evolution of a Specialty in American Medicine

Rothstein, William G.

15.
Overview of Research on Women in Medicine: Issues for Public Policymakers

Bowman, Marjorie
Gross, Marcy Lynn

16.
Functional Redundancy and the Process of Professionalization: The Case of Registered Nurses in the United States

Levi, Margaret

17.
Podiatry : A Medical Care Specialty in Quest of Full Professional Status and Recognition

Skipper, Jr., James K.
Hughes, James E.

18.
An Enduring Tradition: American Midwives in the Twentieth Century

Litoff, Judy Barrett

Part 5.
Health Care Organizations

19.
Controversy about American Hospitals: Funding, Ownership, and Performance

Hollingsworth, J. Rogers
Hollingsworth, Ellen Jane

20.
Good-Bye to Jim Crow: The Desegregation of Southern Hospitals, 1945–1970

Beardsley, E. H.

21.
Health Maintenance Organizations: A New Development or the Emperor's Old Clothes?

James III, Tom
Nash, David B.

Part 6.
Mental Illness

22.
A Historical Analysis of the Treatment of the Mentally Ill

Rothstein, William G.

23.
Mental Health Policy in America: Myths and Realities

Grob, Gerald N.

Part 7.
Financing Health Care

24.
Medical Care, Medical Costs: The Search for a Health Insurance Policy

Fein, Rashi

25.
Containing United States Health Care Costs: What Bullet to Bite?

Jencks, Stephen F.
Schieber, George J.

Part 8.
Medical Education

26.
“Making Fewer Mistakes”: A History of Students and Patients

Atwater, Edward C.

Part 9.
Issues in Health Care

27.
Barriers to Prenatal Care: An Examination of Use of Prenatal Care among Low-Income Women in New York City

Caro, Francis G.
Marshall, Eleanor
Carter, Anjean B.
Kalmuss, Debra
Fennelly, Katherine
Lopez, Iris

28.
Iowa's Abortion Battles of the Late 1960s and Early 1970s: Long-Term Perspectives and Short-Term Analyses

Mohr, James C.

29.
The Demise of Free Care: The Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago

Kilbane, Kathleen
Blacksin, Beth

30.
Historical Perspectives on Cancer Control

Breslow, Lester
Breslow, Devra Miller

31.
Pharmaceuticals and Public Policy in America: A History

Rothstein, William G.

32.
Ethical Issues in A Social Context

Gray, Bradford H.
Osterweis, Marian

Index

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