Funigiello unlocks the puzzle of why the United States has never guaranteed its citizens health security comparable to that enjoyed by people of other first-world nations-and he tells what needs to happen for policy reform to take place. Examining specific episodes in the history of health care financing, he highlights the importance of key individuals in the legislative process, the political haggling involved in shaping a bill, the clash of personalities and agendas that determine its fate, and the extent to which American ideas about fairness are reflected in the result.

Beginning with the National Health Survey of the 1930s, Funigiello traces the long struggle to enact Medicare and explains how medical inflation adversely affected both public and private employment-based insurance systems. He then recounts how Medicare became a target in the Republicans' war on spending, assesses the ill-fated Clinton health plan, and brings everything up to date with the Bush administration's expansion of Medicare to include prescription drug coverage.

Throughout this history, Funigiello shows that both liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, share the blame for not providing every American with health security as a right of citizenship. He argues that ideological values such as rugged individualism and laissez-faire capitalism have continually overshadowed the spirit of pragmatism, cooperation, and community ethos that health security requires.

As the swelling ranks of the uninsured threaten to destabilize the entire health care system for those who can still afford it, this country is faced with growing health insecurity unless we learn to rise above political differences. Chronic Politics is an incisive look at how history has affected current policy and is required reading for all concerned with the politics of financing health care in America.

Back Cover Copy
"An incisive political history of our most notorious and persistent public policy failure that moves seamlessly from the early days of the twentieth century to the health politics of our own time. . . . Will interest those who want to understand the past, as well as those who want to shape the future."--Colin Gordon, author of Dead on Arrival: The politics of Health Care in Twentieth-Century America

"A most valuable resource in understanding the historical struggle for a basic human right that the U.S. still denies to its citizens."--Vicente Navarro, author of The politics of Health Policy: The U.S. Reforms, 1980-1994 and editor-in-chief of The International journal of Health Services

This is an excellent textbook for an advanced course in biostatsitics and also an indispensable reference for biostatisticians and epidemiologistswhat makes this textbook so valuable is that it covers the core methods first using classical statistical tools and then likelihood-based theories, highlighting the continuities. Another important feature is the care and balance with which it is drafted: the reasoning is always clear, the mathematical presentation detailed but to thepoint, the examples linked across different chapters. (Short Book Reviews, Vol. 20, No. 3, December 2000)

"an excellent guide for graduate-level students in biostatistics and invaluable reference for biostatisticians, applied statisticians, and epidemiologists." (Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2001h)

"does a very thorough job of establishing a sound bias for the use of biostatistical methodology." (Technometrics, February 2002)

"..an excellent guide for graduate-level students in biostatistics and an invaluable reference for biostatisticians, applied statisticians, and epidemiologists." (Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 961, 2001/11)

"the book is an excellent guide" (Zentralblatt MATH, Vol.961, No.11 2001)

Book Description
Comprehensive coverage of classical and modern methods of biostatistics

Biostatistical Methods focuses on the assessment of risks and relative risks on the basis of clinical investigations. It develops basic concepts and derives biostatistical methods through both the application of classical mathematical statistical tools and more modern likelihood-based theories.

The first half of the book presents methods for the analysis of single and multiple 2x2 tables for cross-sectional, prospective, and retrospective (case-control) sampling, with and without matching using fixed and two-stage random effects models. The text then moves on to present a more modern likelihood- or model-based approach, which includes unconditional and conditional logistic regression; the analysis of count data and the Poisson regression model; and the analysis of event time data, including the proportional hazards and multiplicative intensity models. The book contains a technical appendix that presents the core mathematical statistical theory used for the development of classical and modern statistical methods. Biostatistical Methods: The Assessment of Relative Risks:
* Presents modern biostatistical methods that are generalizations of the classical methods discussed
* Emphasizes derivations, not just cookbook methods
* Provides copious reference citations for further reading
* Includes extensive problem sets
* Employs case studies to illustrate application of methods
* Illustrates all methods using the Statistical Analysis System(r) (SAS)

Supplemented with numerous graphs, charts, and tables as well as a Web site for larger data sets and exercises, Biostatistical Methods: The Assessment of Relative Risks is an excellent guide for graduate-level students in biostatistics and an invaluable reference for biostatisticians, applied statisticians, and epidemiologists.