Medicaid Reform and the American States: Case Studies on the Politics of Managed Care

Medicaid is the primary means for providing medical care to the nation's indigent and disabled populations. Almost 13 percent of all Americans received some form of medical coverage, such as physician services or long-term care, through Medicaid in the early 1990s. The costs continue to rise dramatically, and state governments have become alarmed by the growing share of their budgets that Medicaid consumes. Daniels and his contributors present the efforts of 16 states to reform their Medicaid programs through a system of managed care—programs that seek to control or manage the use by patients of physicians and other heath care services. They present an overview of the inconsistency and paradox of American health care, pointing to the ways each state's unique political and economic variables give rise to individually stylized approaches to the delivery of Medicaid services. The most comprehensive look at state efforts in Medicaid reform, the book will be an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers in the fields of public and health administration, for practitioners, and for policymakers.