WEB: Health Policy Advisory Center (Health/PAC) on line and free
March 25, 2013
Contact: contact@healthpacbulletin.org
HEALTH/PAC (POLICY ADVISORY CENTER) BULLETINS NOW
AVAILABLE
ON LINE, SEARCHABLE AND FREE AT
Before there was an internet, with blogs, listservs and
web pages to
turn to, there was the Health/PAC Bulletin, the
hard-hitting and
muckraking journal of health activism and health care
system analyses
and critiques. A new web site, www.healthpacbulletin.org, is a
complete and searchable digital collection of
Health/PAC’s influential
publication, which was published from 1968 through 1993.
Health/PAC
staffers and authors in New York City and briefly, a West
Coast office
in San Francisco, wrote and spoke to health activists
across the
country on every issue from free clinics to women’s
health struggles
to health worker organizing to environmental
justice. Health/PAC both
reported on what was going on and reflected back on a
wide variety of
strategies and tactics to build a more just health care
system – a
conversation that continues today.
Health/PAC coined the terms “medical empire†and “medical industrial
complexâ€
to capture the ways the profit motive distorted priorities in
the American health care system. It critiqued big Pharma
and rising
health care costs, explored the differing forms of health
activism,
and made it clear that a seemingly disorganized health
care system was
in fact quite organized to serve ends other than health
care. Its
first book, The American Health Empire (1970), published
by Random
House, brought its analysis to national attention. Other
edited
collections of the Bulletins followed: Prognosis Negative
(1976) and
Beyond Crisis (1994).
Many of today’s leading health activists,
reformers and policy scholars got their start at Health/
PAC.
The website adds immeasurably to the resources
documenting the history
of mid- to late- 20th century American health policy and
politics.
Activists, scholars, journalists, practitioners,
professors, and
students will all find these Bulletins a source of useful
analysis and
information. This
is not only a way to learn about the late 20th
century history, but to consider why certain issues
continue to plague
our health system.
The site is a work in progress and we welcome your
feedback and
suggestions. It was a real labor to get these collected
and available
and we hope you find the site a useful resource. .
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Merlin Chowkwanyun, Feygele Jacobs, Ronda Kotelchuck and
Susan M.
Reverby for the former HEALTH/PAC staff and board
The Health/PAC Archives Workgroup
Merlin Chowkwanyun, Feygele Jacobs, Susan Reverby, Ronda
Kotelchuck,
David Rosner, Oli Fein and Robb Burlage
--
Susan M. Reverby
Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas
Professor of Women's and Gender Studies
Wellesley College
on sabbatical 2012-13