Looking Back on President Barack Obama’s Legacy, 2018
Jill Quadagno and Daniel Lanford review the history and implementation of the Patient Protection ... more Jill Quadagno and Daniel Lanford review the history and implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), often called Obamacare. This historical breakthrough in public policy came in the first two years of President Obama’s term. Although the Republican Party opposed the Act and no Republican Congressperson voted for it, the law dramatically changed the United States health care system as well as the national narrative about whether health care is an appropriate entitlement. The chapter explains the origins of the ACA, reviews its implementation, and examines why the Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare met with very strong resistance.
Abstract Purpose This chapter examines social variations in parent dissatisfaction with children’... more Abstract Purpose This chapter examines social variations in parent dissatisfaction with children’s medical care and tests whether greater dissatisfaction is associated with less preventive care and unmet medical need. Methodology/approach The 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) is a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of parents of U.S. children age 0–17 years (N=78,523). We use a combination of ordinary least squares (OLS) and binary logistic regression to analyze parent dissatisfaction, preventive care, and unmet medical need. Findings Our results indicate that parents’ dissatisfaction scores are significantly higher for racial/ethnic minorities, non-English speakers, lower socioeconomic status (SES) respondents, and the uninsured. Furthermore, parent dissatisfaction has a significant and robust association with lack of preventive care and reports of unmet medical need. Research limitations/implications Due to the cross-sectional research design, we were unable to determine whether dissatisfaction caused parents to delay children’s medical care, thus resulting in a lack of annual preventive care and greater unmet needs. Originality/value of chapter Although there is extensive research on adult perceptions of their own medical care, few sociological studies have examined parents’ perceptions about their children’s care. Yet, there is substantial evidence that parents transmit health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to their children. As with adult patients, parent satisfaction with their child’s medical care is stratified by social characteristics; however, we also find a strong association between dissatisfaction and use of other important health services. It may be the case that when parents feel that they did not receive satisfactory care, they are more likely to delay, or to forgo, preventive and other health services.
Many studies examine the effect of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliatio... more Many studies examine the effect of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) on employment trends, financial security, and family structure, but few consider its implications for mental health issues. Yet mental health is central to a key objective of welfare reform: increasing work effort and self-sufficiency. This study uses data from the 1995 and 2006 waves of the National Survey of Drug Use and Health to relate trends in welfare recipients’ mental health to welfare reform. Results suggest that, before PRWORA, welfare recipients did not differ from other poor women in depressive or alcohol dependence symptoms. Ten years after reform, welfare recipients experience more depressive symptoms than other poor women. This suggests that welfare reform left unusually symptomatic women on the rolls. The findings also suggest that mental health services are critical if welfare recipients are to succeed in making the transition from welfare to work.
Henry David Thoreau's influential essay “Civil Disobedience,” published in 1849, began with a... more Henry David Thoreau's influential essay “Civil Disobedience,” published in 1849, began with a ringing declaration of opposition to government: “I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—‘That government is best which governs not at all.’…the character of the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.” Thoreau's statement summarizes a central thesis in political theory, what has become a historical constant in the minds of researchers seeking to explain the development and parameters of the American welfare state. This thesis is that any power given to the government is subtracted from the liberty of the governed, a concept best captured by the term “antistatism.” Thus, Lipset contends that the United States...
Looking Back on President Barack Obama’s Legacy, 2018
Jill Quadagno and Daniel Lanford review the history and implementation of the Patient Protection ... more Jill Quadagno and Daniel Lanford review the history and implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), often called Obamacare. This historical breakthrough in public policy came in the first two years of President Obama’s term. Although the Republican Party opposed the Act and no Republican Congressperson voted for it, the law dramatically changed the United States health care system as well as the national narrative about whether health care is an appropriate entitlement. The chapter explains the origins of the ACA, reviews its implementation, and examines why the Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare met with very strong resistance.
Abstract Purpose This chapter examines social variations in parent dissatisfaction with children’... more Abstract Purpose This chapter examines social variations in parent dissatisfaction with children’s medical care and tests whether greater dissatisfaction is associated with less preventive care and unmet medical need. Methodology/approach The 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) is a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of parents of U.S. children age 0–17 years (N=78,523). We use a combination of ordinary least squares (OLS) and binary logistic regression to analyze parent dissatisfaction, preventive care, and unmet medical need. Findings Our results indicate that parents’ dissatisfaction scores are significantly higher for racial/ethnic minorities, non-English speakers, lower socioeconomic status (SES) respondents, and the uninsured. Furthermore, parent dissatisfaction has a significant and robust association with lack of preventive care and reports of unmet medical need. Research limitations/implications Due to the cross-sectional research design, we were unable to determine whether dissatisfaction caused parents to delay children’s medical care, thus resulting in a lack of annual preventive care and greater unmet needs. Originality/value of chapter Although there is extensive research on adult perceptions of their own medical care, few sociological studies have examined parents’ perceptions about their children’s care. Yet, there is substantial evidence that parents transmit health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to their children. As with adult patients, parent satisfaction with their child’s medical care is stratified by social characteristics; however, we also find a strong association between dissatisfaction and use of other important health services. It may be the case that when parents feel that they did not receive satisfactory care, they are more likely to delay, or to forgo, preventive and other health services.
Many studies examine the effect of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliatio... more Many studies examine the effect of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) on employment trends, financial security, and family structure, but few consider its implications for mental health issues. Yet mental health is central to a key objective of welfare reform: increasing work effort and self-sufficiency. This study uses data from the 1995 and 2006 waves of the National Survey of Drug Use and Health to relate trends in welfare recipients’ mental health to welfare reform. Results suggest that, before PRWORA, welfare recipients did not differ from other poor women in depressive or alcohol dependence symptoms. Ten years after reform, welfare recipients experience more depressive symptoms than other poor women. This suggests that welfare reform left unusually symptomatic women on the rolls. The findings also suggest that mental health services are critical if welfare recipients are to succeed in making the transition from welfare to work.
Henry David Thoreau's influential essay “Civil Disobedience,” published in 1849, began with a... more Henry David Thoreau's influential essay “Civil Disobedience,” published in 1849, began with a ringing declaration of opposition to government: “I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—‘That government is best which governs not at all.’…the character of the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.” Thoreau's statement summarizes a central thesis in political theory, what has become a historical constant in the minds of researchers seeking to explain the development and parameters of the American welfare state. This thesis is that any power given to the government is subtracted from the liberty of the governed, a concept best captured by the term “antistatism.” Thus, Lipset contends that the United States...
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