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HEALTH CARE POLITICS, POLICY, AND SERVICES: A SOCIAL JUSTICE ANALYSIS, Second Edition Gunnar Almgren New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, 2013, 416 pp., $85.00 (softcover)
Gunnar Almgren's 15 years of scholarly work has focused on social welfare, health care policy, and safety-net health care systems, particularly because it relates to the health care of disenfranchised populations. The second edition of his 2013 book, Health Care Politics, Policy, and Services: A Social Justice Analysis provides an examination of several social justice frameworks as the root of his argument for societies' moral responsibility to ensure the health of its citizens. The evolvement of the U.S. health care system is historically analyzed concluding the provision of services has been ideologically driven based on "worthiness." Almgren argues the nation has a principled obligation to address the health care needs of all. Included in the text is a discussion of the mixed public/private structure of the U.S. health care system prior to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Act (PPACA) and the health care systems responsiveness to the long-term care needs of the aged and disabled. The endemic racial and ethnic disparities in health among U.S. citizens and the social determinants detrimentally influencing health outcomes are discussed. Published after the enactment of the PPACA, a legitimate question is raised as to the relevance...