Health Care in the United States

The health care reform debate in the United States raises many complex issues including those of coverage, accessibility, cost, accountability, and quality of health care. Underlying these policy considerations are issues regarding the status of health care as a constitutional or legal right. This book series analyses the constitutional and legal issues pertaining to the right of health care and the power of Congress to enact and fund health care programs. Other topics discussed in this volume include the consequences of States' decisions not to expand Medicaid; a discussion on the distribution of expenditures among Medicaid-only enrollees; a description of how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the budgetary effects of legislative proposals to reduce fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and how those estimates are used in the Congressional budget process; an overview of Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigations, audits, evaluations, and legal guidance related to Medicare Part D; a background and the federal tole in vaccine policy of the measles; prescription cholesterol-lowering medication use in adults aged 40 and over in the United States; and systems for rapidly detecting and treating persons with the Ebola virus.