Political Analysis: Applications to Health Care and Health Policy

Award Year: 2000	Investigator: Rudolf Klein, Theodore Marmor	Budget: $249,219	Categories: Comparative Healthcare Systems, Politics and Policymaking
Abstract: Professors Marmor and Klein seek to improve the understanding of health care policymaking while contributing to a more informed discussion of options among academics and policymakers. Building on their earlier work, they will focus on the politics of decision making in the widest sense: the constraints and opportunities created by existing institutions, administrative capacities, and the structure of interests in the health policy arena. The project will provide a framework for analyzing the dynamics of the policy process and categorizing health care issues. The investigators will draw on the findings of other health policy studies and use them to test the framework. Among the specific topics to be addressed are the political struggles over systemic reform, rationing, prevention, professional accountability, consumer empowerment, health panics, and moral crusades.