Health Care Policy in an Age of New Technologies

Revolutionary advances in biomedical research and information systems technology pose new and difficult issues for American health care policy, especially in the context of managed care. Health Care Policy in an Age of New Technologies takes on this challenging array of issues, where the dignity of individual life meets the imperatives of a national-level health-care system: the right to die, rationing of care, organ transplants, genetic testing, research with human embryos, confidentiality of medical records, and other ethical dilemmas. Chapters on a patients' bill of rights, and on medical education and physician training, link the book to policy issues of direct concern to the public and to practitioners. Throughout the book, the authors place critical questions in their political, legal, social, economic, and ethical context. Each chapter ends with discussion points and a multimedia bibliography directs readers to relevant films, documentaries, and case studies.