First published in 1997, this volume emerged in the ongoing struggle between those favouring centralized and those favouring decentralized government, and has three goals: 1) To illustrate how theories of federalism and intergovernmental relations can provide a useful framework for examining how to 'divide up the job in the health care area'; 2) To assess the capacity of the states to actually implement health care policy changes; 3) To weigh the merits of alternative visions of the future roles of states and the federal government in health care policy.

Part 1. Federalism, Health Policy, and the States. 1. Health Care Policy and the American States: Issues of Federalism. Robert F. Rich and William D. White. Part 2. Health Policy in the States: Overview. 2. State Health Policy in the 1990s. John Holahan and Len Nichols. 3. State Small-Group Insurance Reform. Michael A. Morrisey and Gail A. Jensen. 4. Health Care and the Fiscal Crisis of the States. Steven D. Gold. 5. Health Care Financing Reform and State Mental Health Systems. Richard Frank and Thomas McGuire. Part 3. Assessing the Capacity of the States. 6. State Governments and their Capacity for Health Care Reform. Howard M. Leichter. 7. States and the Health Care Crisis: The Limits and Lessons of Laboratory Federalism. Michael S. Sparer and Lawrence D. Brown. 8. Variation in Health Care Policy in the American States: The Dog that Didn't Bark. Carolyn Hughes Tuohy. 9. Should States Be Responsible for New Directions in Health Provision? Lessons from Other Policy Areas. Steven G. Craig. 10. Health Care Reform and Competition Among the States. Daphne A. Kenyon. Part 4. The Future of States in Health Care Policy. 11. National Health Reform: Where Do We Go From Here? Theodore Marmor, Jerry Mashaw, and Jonathan Oberlander. 12. The American States, Federalism, and the Future of Health Care Policy. Robert F. Rich and William D. White.