Offers insights into the composition and working of the full spectrum of health care services in the United States, outlining up-to-the-minute trends and future policy options in the wake of dwindling confidence in previous health care reform initiatives. The authors are all recognized as top researchers in the field, drawing on their own investigations to address such issues as AIDS, ethics, costs, quality, malpractice, and regulation versus competition.

Improving access to care in America: individual and contextual indicators / Ronald M. Andersen, Pamela L. Davidson -- Ethnic disparities in health status / Antronette K. Yancey, Roshan Bastani, Beth A. Glenn -- Disparities in health care / Leo S. Morales, Alexander N. Ortega -- Public policies to extend health care coverage / E. Richard Brown, with Shana Alex Lavarreda -- Measuring health care costs and trends / Thomas H. Rice -- Containing health care costs / Thomas H. Rice, Gerald F. Kominski -- Controlling pharmaceutical prices and expenditures / Stuart O. Schweitzer, William S. Comanor -- Measuring outcomes and health-related quality of life / Patricia A. Ganz [and others] -- Evaluating the quality of care / Elizabeth A. McGlynn -- Public release of information on quality / Elizabeth A. McGlynn, John L. Adams -- Health care information systems / Jeff Luck, Paul Fu Jr. -- Performance measurement of nursing care / Jack Needleman, Ellen T. Kurtzman, Kenneth W. Kizer -- Long-term care and the elderly population / Steven P. Wallace [and others] -- AIDS in the twenty-first century : challenges for health services and public health / David S. Zingmond, William E. Cunningham -- Health reform for children and families / Moira Inkelas [and others] -- Mental health services and policy issues / Susan L. Ettner, Janet C. Link -- Women's health : key issues in access to health insurance coverage and to services among nonelderly women / Roberta Wyn, Beatriz M. Solís -- Homeless persons / Lisa Arangua, Lillian Gelberg -- Managed care and the growth of competition / Gerald F. Kominski, Glenn A. Melnick -- Medicare reform / Gerald F. Kominski, Jeanne T. Black, Thomas H. Rice -- Public health and personal health services / Lester Breslow, Jonathan E. Fielding -- The continuing issue of medical malpractice liability / Ruth Roemer -- Ethical issues in public health and health services / Pauline Vaillancourt Rosenau, Ruth Roemer.