Health Care, Markets, and Democratic Values

Proposals to restructure the health care industry by increasing market competition currently have much political and academic momentum. Whether such proposals will work necessarily depends in part upon the criteria for success that are applied. Viewed from the market perspective, the question is whether procompetitive reforms will achieve their stated goals of containing costs, increasing efficiency, and enhancing consumer sovereignty over health care decisions. From a broader perspective, other questions are also of concern: whether increased competition in health care will actually improve people\u27s health, and whether the operations and effects of health care competition are consistent with important values such as individual dignity, democracy, and equality. These questions need to be seriously addressed, if not finally answered, before the federal and state governments embark on a policy of widespread market reform. To contribute to the resolution of these issues, this Article briefly surveys the market advocates\u27 articulated goals and their somewhat disparate means for achieving them. The Article then argues that the major market proposals are flawed seriously by internal contradictions, so that in all likelihood they will not be able to realize their goals even if their assumptions about human nature and the consumption of health care services are accepted

Toward a Multifaceted Heuristic of Digital Reading to Inform Assessment, Research, Practice, and Policy

In this commentary, the author explores the tension between almost 30 years of work that has embraced increasingly complex conceptions of digital reading and recent studies that risk oversimplifying digital reading as a singular entity analogous with reading text on a screen. The author begins by tracing a line of theoretical and empirical work that both informs and complicates our understanding of digital literacy and, more specifically, digital reading. Then, a heuristic is proposed to systematically organize, label, and define a multifaceted set of increasingly complex terms, concepts, and practices that characterize the spectrum of digital reading experiences. Research that informs this heuristic is used to illustrate how more precision in defining digital reading can promote greater clarity across research methods and advance a more systematic study of promising digital reading practices. Finally, the author discusses implications for assessment, research, practice, and policy

Law and the American Health Care System

Law and the American Health Care System addresses legal and policy issues raised by changes in market forces, increased competition, changes from federal and state actions which are restructuring governmental health care programs. The book provides a sophisticated, teachable introduction to health care organization, financing, and quality in the U.S., focusing on the evolving framework in which health care is practiced and delivered. Clear focus on the interaction of market forces, government, health policy, and legal developments