Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog.
Note: Electronic data is machine generated. May be incomplete or contain other coding.
Acknowledgments x
Chapter 1. Health Policy Change 1
Why Has Health Care Dominated the Policy Agenda? 1
Explanations from Social Science 4
Overview 7
Chapter 2. Exploring the Foundations of Dynamic Policy Change 11
Path Dependence 11
The Importance of Public Opinion in Shaping Health
Care Policy 14
American Health Care Policy 16
The Dynamic Nature of Health Care Reform? 20
Incrementalism versus Dynamism in Health Care 26
Chapter 3. Path Dependence and Policy Change 29
Introduction 29
Social Constructions and Medicare 33
How the Elderly Lost and Regained Their Health
Insurance 33
Analyzing Change 35
Does the Mood Really Matter? 44
Conclusion 46
Chapter 4. Presidents as Advocates, Entrepreneurs, and Agenda
Setters 47
Introduction 47
Presidents as Advocates and Entrepreneurs 49
Policy Change Research 50
The Presidents and Their Policies 52
Data and Methods 61
Results 66
Discussion 69
Conclusion 72
Chapter 5. Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? 75
Introduction 75
Theories of Information 77
The Failure of the Health Security Act 81
Information and Policy Support 83
Measuring and Testing Knowledge 84
A Model of Reciprocal Causation 85
Results 89
Conclusion 90
Chapter 6. Examining the Impact of Countervalent Messages on
Policy Support 93
Introduction 93
Media Effects: Negative Advertsing and "Harry and
Louise" 94
The Media and the Health Security Act 97
Study One: Testing the Strength of the Countervalent
Information Message 99
Study Two: Understanding the Effects of Political
Sophistication 101
Discussion 104
Conclusion 107
Chapter 7. Media Effects and Policy Opinions 109
Introduction 109
Media Priming 110
Media Coverage and Information about the Health
Security Act 113
Study One: Data and Methods 114
Study One: A Model of Priming Effects on
1996 Presidential Vote Intentions 115
Study One: Results and Discussion 116
Study Two: An Experimental Test of Media
Priming of Health Care in the 2000 Presidential Race 117
Study Two: Data and Methods 118
A Model of Priming Effects on Candidate Evaluations 118
Study Two: Results and Discussion 120
Conclusions 122
Chapter 8. Dynamic Health Policy Change 125
Introduction 125
The Public Mood and National Health Care Spending 129
Health Policy History and Presidential Activity 130
The Rise and the Demise of the Health Security Act 131
Conclusion 133
Methodological Appendix 135
Notes 155
References 159
Index 175
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Medical care Public opinion, Medical policy Public opinion, Health planning Public opinion