This book provides a comprehensive introduction to significant U.S. health policy controversies, including Democratic and Republican responses to the coronavirus pandemic. It explores partisan divisions, major challenges, and policy preferences of key Democratic and Republican stakeholders.

This volume provides readers with a broad overview of a variety of issues in contemporary health policy that span health care reform, health insurance, pharmaceuticals, public health, health care for underserved populations, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The book explores the politics of each issue, drawing upon historical evidence, legislative research, public opinion polls, and the views of key decision makers from both Democratic and Republican perspectives. This coverage provides readers with a clear sense of how policymakers from each party think about the issues involved.

This resource devotes special attention to the COVID-19 public health crisis, providing authoritative coverage of the actions, rhetoric, and policy choices of President Trump and his administration, governors across the nation, and leaders of Congress from both parties. This chapter, like all others in the book, is written so that it is accessible to readers from a variety of audience levels, including high school students, college students, and general readers.

• Identifies key milestones and policy decisions that shape contemporary debates over each issue
• Uses a nonpartisan, unbiased, and impartial lens to help readers understand not only where parties stand on contested health policy issues, but how these disagreements reflect larger ideological and partisan views
• Brings both a historical perspective and a detailed view of policymaking—and the role of political institutions—to each topic addressed
• Informs readers about the ethical, historical, and legal context of each issue
• Provides a chronology of events in U.S. health care policy
• Includes further readings of important and illuminating sources at the end of each chapter