Public Finance or Better but Not Well

Public Finance

Author: Harvey S Rosen

Public Finance--while continuing to follow an innovative approach that is both theoretical and empirical--is now completely updated to reflect major changes in its key topics. New or revised information includes explanations of the Social Security trust fund, a new section on the alternative minimum tax (AMT), possible links between the corporation tax and high-profile scandals such as Enron, and more.

Harvey S. Rosen is a professor of economics and business policy at Princeton University. He was appointed by President Bush to serve on the Council of Economic Advisors.

Booknews

This text on public finance for undergraduates and for public administration graduate programs describes the institutional and legal settings of finance and emphasizes the links between economic analysis and current political issues. Chapters provide an overview of government's role in the economy, and explore tools for positive and normative analysis, tax analysis, and the US revenue system. The appendix discusses basic microeconomics. This fourth edition includes new chapters on health care issues and revised material on taxation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

See also: Pedras angulares de Contabilidade Administrativa

Better but Not Well: Mental Health Policy in the United States Since 1950

Author: Richard G Frank

The past half-century has been marked by major changes in the treatment of mental illness: important advances in understanding mental illnesses, increases in spending on mental health care and support of people with mental illnesses, and the availability of new medications that are easier for the patient to tolerate. Although these changes have made things better for those who have mental illness, they are not quite enough.

In Better But Not Well, Richard G. Frank and Sherry A. Glied examine the well-being of people with mental illness in the United States over the past fifty years, addressing issues such as economics, treatment, standards of living, rights, and stigma. Marshaling a range of new empirical evidence, they first argue that people with mental illness -- severe and persistent disorders as well as less serious mental health conditions -- are faring better today than in the past. Improvements have come about for unheralded and unexpected reasons. Rather than being a result of more effective mental health treatments, progress has come from the growth of private health insurance and of mainstream social programs -- such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, housing vouchers, and food stamps -- and the development of new treatments that are easier for patients to tolerate and for physicians to manage.

The authors remind us that, despite the progress that has been made, this disadvantaged group remains worse off than most others in society. The "mainstreaming" of persons with mental illness has left a policy void, where governmental institutions responsible for meeting the needs of mental health patients lack resources and programmatic authority. To fillthis void, Frank and Glied suggest that institutional resources be applied systematically and routinely to examine and address how federal and state programs affect the well-being of people with mental illness.

Table of Contents:

1	Introduction	1
2	The population with mental illness	8
3	The evolving technology of mental health care	26
4	Health care financing and income support	48
5	The supply of mental health services	70
6	Policy making in mental health : integration, mainstreaming, and shifting institutions	91
7	Assessing the well-being of people with mental illness	104
8	Looking forward : improving the well-being of people with mental illness	140