For their Investigator Award project, David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. and co-principal investigator James A. Morone, Ph.D. take on the modern American Presidency. In their study, Health Care and the American Presidency, they examine how the actions or inaction of each President from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush have influenced the formulation and implementation of health policy in the United States. Using a variety of research techniques and models, Drs. Blumenthal and Morone expect to provide insights into the involvement of presidents in health policy issues and their role in the policymaking process. Their work should contribute to our understanding of the policy process and inform the activities of presidents, their staffs, other government officials, and stakeholders.

Dr. Morone investigates how morality influences health politics and policy. He: 1) designs a model that suggests how the political process changes when actors define policy questions in moral terms - e.g., irresponsible behavior or undeserving beneficiaries; 2) applies this analytic framework to six major health policy issues; and 3) contributes to health policy by explaining the latent moral politics that underlie contemporary approaches and programs. The study focuses on illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco, AIDS, universal health care coverage, and teen pregnancy. Using an historical approach, it shows how popular images of vice and virtue influence each issue and draws lessons across policy areas generally studied in isolation. Particular emphasis is placed on several themes including: the issue of race and the use of moral politics as a coded way to inject racial bias into health policy debates; variations on the question of education and treatment versus prohibition and punishment; and the role of stigma and stereotyping in the politics of health policy.

Morone has testified before Congress numerous times. He was a member (and recording secretary) of Governor Mario Cuomo's task force on Universal Health Care for all New Yorkers (UNY*CARE) and a member of the National Academy of Science Committee on the Social and Ethical Impacts of Developments in Biomedicine. Morone is a founding member of the health section of the National Academy of Social Insurance.