Political Science Final Review 2012: Healthcare, Education, and Social Policies - Prof. Jo, Study notes of Political Science

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Political Science Final Review 2012  Fee for Service Healthcare (FFS)  Healthcare payment system in which each separate consultation, procedure, or device has a separate and specific price for which the patient or insurance company is billed.  Its fundamentals have changed over the past two decades, moving away from FFS toward managed care.  Managed Care  System for organizing provision and payment for medical care; characterized by selective contracting, physician gatekeepers, and other procedures for controlling use of healthcare resources.  The idea of managed care is to hold down prices by negotiating and other means.  Managed care uses selective contracting. o This means that patients are required to see only certain providers, either through a health maintenance organization or a preferred provider organization.  HMO : Health Maintenance Organization  PPO : Preferred Provider Organization o Managed care was put in place in order to keep healthcare cost down. o In the mid 90’s there was some evidence that the managed care system might have held some healthcare costs down. However, since then there has been a negative attitude towards this system for various reasons.  What groups of people have harder times getting quality healthcare?  Poor, rural individuals have less access to quality healthcare than middle class suburban and urban residents do.  Know the reasons why healthcare in general is expensive.  The medical industry relies heavily on high tech equipment to improve care.  The cost of developing, maintaining, and operating this equipment is extremely high.  Requires a lot of labor, for every patient there are two employees.  Medicare  A federal program of social insurance for the healthcare needs of the elderly and disabled persons.  This is a supplement to social security for the elderly.  This program was designed to buffer the high cost of medical care that senior citizens generally face.  Problems with Medicare  Its rapidly increasing costs  The fact that it’s the only supplemental insurance for seniors.  Medicaid  A state-federal public assistance program to provide health care for low- income persons.  This is a public healthcare program funded out of general revenue for the very poor.  SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program)  Federal block grants to states to expand health insurance coverage to children in families with incomes above the Medicaid eligibility level.  Designed to cover over half of the uninsured children in the country.  If any law is deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court it is no longer considered law.  Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965  First federal legislation providing financial assistance to local schools for textbooks, libraries, and other instructional materials.  Who primarily funds public schools?  State and local tax dollars  Local tax sources, primarily the property tax, generate over 40% of elementary and secondary school revenues.  Understand why there is a difference in public education based upon funding.  Local school districts rely heavily on property taxes. This means that school districts that do not have much taxable property cannot finance their schools as well as those containing large tax bases.  Rich districts have more revenue and better overall educational programs than poor districts.  Merit Pay for teachers  This refers to performance-related pay, most frequently in the context of educational reform.  It provides bonuses for workers who perform their jobs effectively, according to measurable data.  Conservative view on education  Support school choices and technological literacy, but oppose the creation of national standards developed by a federal education bureaucracy.  Think that too much money is being spent on education with very little to show for it.  Want control over education policy to be returned to the state and local level.  Links personal development to individual initiative and responsibility.  Liberal or Progressive view on education  Tended to be less concerned about national standards and the values that education professionals would include in curriculum.  Want more money to be spent on education, hire more teachers to reduce student-teacher ratios and raise teacher salaries to levels comparable to other professions.  Also that educational resources be distributed more equitably, so students in poor districts are not left behind.  Have reservations about school choice and creation of charter schools.  Thought reflects a conviction that the government has an obligation to compensate for social inequities resulting from individual differences.  Civil Rights Act of 1964  Law that forbids discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, or gender in employment or places of public accommodation.  Affirmative Action  Federal policies requiring businesses and educational institutions guilty of past discrimination or in receipt of federal funding to demonstrate by positive action that they attempt to hire and admit minorities and women.  A group of policies implemented starting in the 1960s to redistribute social benefits to those groups who had less than their share.  The most obvious policy is the implementation of quotas.  This meant that if there was 10% of African Americans in your community, there should be 10% of African Americans working in all businesses.  Arguments for Affirmative Action  Past discrimination and oppression is still being seen today. Therefore, affirmative action is needed to make up for past discrimination.  Affirmative action is needed to promote diversity and to end stereotypes.