The Biomedical Legacy in Minority Health Policy-Making, 1975–2002

Abstract

Through content analysis, the study traces the relative prominence of “biomedical” and “public health” approaches in congressional bills aimed at improving the health of racial and ethnic minorities over a 28-year period. It documents a surge of interest in minority health during the late 1980s and early 1990s and highlights the dominance of biomedical initiatives during this period. Drawing on historical methods and interviews with key informants, the paper explains these patterns by detailing the ways in which policy legacies shaped the interests, opportunities, and ideas of interest groups and policy-makers.

Citation

Halfmann, D., Rude, J. and Ebert, K. (2005), "The Biomedical Legacy in Minority Health Policy-Making, 1975–2002", Jacobs Kronenfeld, J. (Ed.) Health Care Services, Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Underserved Populations: Patient and Provider Perspectives (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 23), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 245-275. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0275-4959(05)23012-0