Research Guides: Current Issues: Health Care

Starting Points

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window Provides topic overviews as well as collects a variety of sources, including statistics, reference materials, journal articles, news articles, images, and audio broadcasts.
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Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window Full-text articles from different points of view on important issues in today's news, plus statistics, images, related court cases, and more.
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window Full-text, balanced, comprehensive journalistic reports and analysis of current and controversial issues of the day.
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Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Useful when you're starting out on a research project. Do simple searches to find topic introductions in a variety of subjects. The mind map tool will help you discover related ideas and terms.
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Introduction

Health care refers to services provided by medical professionals aimed at promoting physical and mental welfare, through the prevention, treatment, and management of illness. This includes care by the medical and allied health professionals, curative care for acute conditions, management of chronic disease, rehabilitation, and palliative care.

Encyclopedia of Governance

The US debate over health care centers on how Americans pay for medical coverage. Supporters of government-funded system argue that universal coverage saves lives and promotes public health, thus helps with economic productivity in the long run. Opponents believe that eliminating free market means loss of competition and decrease of care quality, plus possibilities of doctor shortage and tax increase.

Finding Resources

Is it health care, healthcare, or health-care? In the US, most style guides favor "health care," as two separate words. British publications have increasingly used it as a single word, "healthcare."

Health care reform / health system reform
- Universal health coverage
- Affordable Care Act
- Medicare for all
Medical care access
Medical care cost
Health insurance in the United States
- Long term care insurance
- Child health insurance
- Medicare/Medicaid
Medical Policy
- Abortion policy
- Mental health policy

HealthCare.gov Glossary

Scholarly Article Databases

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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Full text scholarly articles on health care topics
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Peer-reviewed journal articles in a wide range of humanities and social science fields
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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This database provides nearly 550 scholarly full-text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also features abstracts and indexing for nearly 850 journals. This database is updated twice a week.
Access will end on 31 Aug. 2023 due to changes in the TexShare program. Learn more.
Legal Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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Academic journal articles as well as government documents and reports.
Military & Government Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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Full-text journal articles and magazines on military and political topics, plus books, reports, government documents, etc.
Access will end on 31 Aug. 2023 due to changes in the TexShare program. Learn more.

Sample Scholarly Articles

Making Health Care Truly Affordable after Health Care Reform.
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Health Care Reform in the United States: Past, Present and Future Challenges
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PERSPECTIVE: Universal Health Coverage: Are We Losing Our Way on Women’s and Children’s Health?
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"As the costs of U.S. healthcare continue to escalate, three commonsense reforms could reverse this unsustainable trend"
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As the costs of U.S. healthcare continue to escalate, three commonsense reforms could reverse this unsustainable trend
more...less...
Lyford, S., & Lash, T. A. (2019). America’s Healthcare Cost Crisis: As the costs of U.S. healthcare continue to escalate, three commonsense reforms could reverse this unsustainable trend. Generations, 7–12.
Public Health Insurance and Health Care Utilization for Children in Immigrant Families
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U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of America's health care system.
National Institute of Health
An operating division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).
The Health Resources and Services Administration
An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services(HHS), is the primary federal agency for improving health care to people who are geographically isolated, economically or medically vulnerable.
PubMed.gov
Healthcare reform related results from the National Library of Medicine.
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
A nonprofit organization representing public health agencies in the United States, with primary functions to track, evaluate, advise their members in order to improve public health.
State Health Access Data Assistance Center
Multidisciplinary health policy research center with a focus on state policy

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Data resources by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
The Health Resources and Services Administration
An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services(HHS), is the primary federal agency for improving health care to people who are geographically isolated, economically or medically vulnerable.
Systematic Review Data Repository
A collaborative, Web-based repository of systematic review data by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
MEPS is the national data source measuring how Americans use and pay for medical care, health insurance, and out-of-pocket spending.
The American Hospital Association: Data
Data and insights from the American Hospital Association.
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project
Health care data from The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Kaiser Family Foundation
State-focused health facts.

Databases

New York Times: Subscription Access This link opens in a new window
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Find both news and reviews as well as access to historical NY Times issues dating back to 1851.

First time user: To get access, you need to first register for an NYT account.
1. Click the link. You will have to enter your LSC library barcode.
2. Select Create Account and complete registration fields. Use your LSC email address!
3. Once you have an account, you may access NYTimes.com and NYT mobile apps like any subscriber, or go through this link but select "log in."

Note: Site passes will expire after 365 days. To renew, you will have to activate a new pass by repeating this process.

If Google Chrome shows a warning about this link, hit Ignore. You must use the proxy to get the special access.
US Major Dailies (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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US Major Dailies provides access to The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. The content is available by 8 a.m. each day and provides archives stretching as far back as 1985.

On the Web

American Public Health Association
News release from American Public Health Association
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Press release issued by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The American Hospital Association: News
Newsletters from the American Hospital Association.
The Center of Disease Control and Prevention
News release by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

Health Care As a Right of Citizenship by Gunnar Almgren
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Call Number: Ebook Central
ISBN: 9780231170130
Publication Date: 2017
This ambitious book examines how the American health care system must be further reformed to bring it closer in line with the ideals of a modern democracy, as well as how the ACA may change in the coming years. It suggests the next, natural step in the realization of health and well being as a fundamental human right.
Health Care in America: Separate and Unequal by Kant Patel; Mark E. Rushefsky
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Call Number: EBSCO eBook Collection (1 copy)
ISBN: 9781317468899
Publication Date: 2015
The American health care system is a unique mix of public and private programs. This book examines the root causes of the inequalities of the American health care system and discusses various policy alternatives. It systematically documents the demands on and the performance of our health care system for different population groups as defined on the basis of gender (women), age (children), race and ethnicity (African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans).
America's Healthcare Transformation by Robert A. Phillips (Editor)
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Call Number: EBSCO eBook Collection (unlimited users)
ISBN: 9780813572239
Publication Date: 2016
In America's Healthcare Transformation, eminent physician leader Robert A. Phillips brings together key thought leaders and trail-blazing practitioners, who provide a wide-ranging exploration of the strategies, innovations, and paradigm shifts that are driving this healthcare transformation.
Old and Sick in America by Muriel R. Gillick
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Call Number: EBSCO ebook Collection (unlimited)
ISBN: 9781469635231
Publication Date: 2017
Since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, the American health care system has steadily grown in size and complexity. Muriel R. Gillick takes readers on a narrative tour of American health care, incorporating the stories of older patients as they travel from the doctor's office to the hospital to the skilled nursing facility, and examining the influence of forces as diverse as pharmaceutical corporations, device manufacturers, and health insurance companies on their experience.
Who's Buying Health Care by New Strategist Press Editors (Editor)
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Call Number: Ebook Central (unlimited)
ISBN: 9781933588414
Publication Date: 2015
Examines how much Americans spend out-of-pocket on health care by the demographics that count: age, income, high-income households, household type, race and Hispanic origin, region of residence, and education.
Healthcare As a Universal Human Right by Rui Nunes
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Call Number: EBSCO eBook Collection
ISBN: 9781032138800
Publication Date: 2022
This important book outlines how, despite varying levels of global socio-economic development, governments around the world can guarantee their citizens' fundamental right to basic healthcare. Also emphasizing the importance of global co-operation, particularly in the area of health promotion and communication, it addresses, too, the issue of financial sustainability, suggesting robust mechanisms of economic and social regulation. New opportunities created by e-health, evidence-based data and artificial intelligence are all highlighted and discussed, as is the issue of patient rights.