This fully updated and revised 12th edition of the highly acclaimed textbook on health care delivery provides graduate and undergraduate students with a comprehensive survey of health care in the United States with topics ranging from the organization of care, the politics surrounding health care in the United States, to population health and vulnerable populations, health care costs and value, health care financing, and health information technology. Chapters provide thorough coverage of the rapid changes that are reshaping our system and the extent of our nation's achievement of health care value and the Triple Aim: better health and better care at a lower cost. With an emphasis on population health and public health, this text includes a timely focus on how social and physical environments influence health outcomes. Prominent scholars, practitioners, and educators within public health, population health, health policy, healthcare management, medical care, and nursing present the most up-to-date evidence-based information on social and behavioral determinants of health and health equity, immigrant health, health care workforce challenges, preventive medicine, innovative approaches to control health care costs, initiatives to achieve high quality and value-based care, and much more.Designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students of health care management and administration, nursing, and public health, the text addresses all complex core issues surrounding our health care system and health policy, such as the challenges to health care delivery, the organization and politics of care, and comparative health systems. Organized in a readable and accessible format, contributors provide an in-depth and objective appraisal of why and how we organize health care the way we do, the enormous impact of health-related behaviors on the structure, function, and cost of the health care delivery system, and other emerging and recurrent issues in health policy, health care management, and public health. The 12th edition features the contributions of such luminaries as former editor Anthony R. Kovner, Michael K. Gusmano, Carolyn M. Clancy, Marc N. Gourevitch, Joanne Spetz, James Morone, Karen DeSalvo, and Christy Harris Lemak, among others. Chapters include audio chapter summaries with discussion of newsworthy topics, learning objectives, discussion questions, case exercises, and new charts and tables with concrete health care data. Included for instructors ar