ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines federalism and the American states in relation to health care policy. It analyzes issues associated with a broad range of health care policy innovations, and includes incremental changes in health care delivery and finance as well as state and federal cost-containment policies. The book illustrates how theories of federalism and intergovernmental relations can provide a useful structure for examining issues of what Rivlin has called “dividing up the job” in health care policy. It explores alternative visions of the future role of state and federal government in health care policy. The book reviews trends in health policy at the state level—what the states have done in terms of initiating and financing health policy since the late 1980s, and also how the structure of intergovernmental relations has helped to shape behavior.
