This new edition of the AJN Award-winning textbook analyzes the most current health care reforms and their effect on U.S. health system from a social justice perspective. It addresses the reforms of the landmark health care reform bill passed in March, 2010, and provides students of health care policy with a framework within which they can understand and evaluate the U.S. health system. The text provides a comprehensive description and analysis of the historical evolution and organization of the health care system that is framed by a forthright social justice critique. In addition to extensive coverage of the U.S. health care system structures, finances, and performance on a variety of population health indicators, the text analyzes disparities in access to health and health care in the U.S.A. - by race, ethnicity, class, age, gender, and geography. Issues of special focus include long-term care policy, the bioethical dimensions of health care policy, the transformation of health to an economic commodity, the politics of health care policymaking, and the global context of health care disparities. New to the Second Edition: Contains numerous chapters that have been extensively revised or completely rewritten; Explains the political goals of and barriers to each stage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's (PPACA) implementation plan; Provides two distinct critiques of the PPACA; Offers a social and political health care agenda based on a social justice perspective; Features a teaching guide.