This new collection turns a critical anthropological eye on the nature of health policy internationally. The authors reveal the prevailing social inequalities that often represent significant threats to the health and well being of the poor, ethnic minorities, and women. The authors define an 'anthropology of policy' concerned with decision-making and the impact of health policy on human lives. It will be a critical resource for researchers and practitioners in medical anthropology, medical sociology, public policy, and public health care.

This new collection turns a critical anthropological eye on the nature of health policy internationally. The authors reveal that in light of prevailing social inequalities, health policies may intend to protect public health, but in fact they often represent significant structural threats to the health and well being of the poor, ethnic minorities, women, and other subordinate groups. The volume focuses on the 'anthropology of policy,' which is concerned with the process of decision-making, the influences on decision-makers, and the impact of policy on human lives. This collaboration will be a critical resource for researchers and practitioners in medical anthropology, applied anthropology, medical sociology, minority issues, public policy, and health care issues.

Chapter 1 Introduction. Anthropology and Health Policy: A Critical Perspective
Chapter 2
Chapter I. International Institutions and the Setting of Health Policies
Chapter 3 1. Pearls of the Antilles? Public Health in Haiti and Cuba
Chapter 4 2. The Visible Fist of the Market: Health Reforms in Latin America
Chapter 5 3. International NGOs in the Mozambique Health Sector: The Velvet Glove of Privatization
Chapter 6 4. Primary Health Care since Alma Ata: Lost in the Bretton Woods?
Chapter 7 5. Shifting Policies Towards Traditional Midwives: Implications for Reproductive Health Care in Pakistan
Chapter 8 6. The Contradictions of a Revolving Drug Fund in Post-Soviet Tajikistan: Selling Medicines to Starving Patients
Chapter 9 7. Equity in Access to AIDS Treatment in Africa: Pitfalls amongst Achievements
Chapter 10 8. Contracepting at Childbirth: The Integration of Reproductive Health and Population Policies in Mexico
Chapter 11 9. How Healthy are Health and Population Policies? The Indian Experience
Chapter 12
Chapter II. National Health Policies and Social Exclusion
Chapter 13 10. Happy Children with AIDS: The Paradox of a Healthy National Program in an Unequal and Exclusionary Brazil
Chapter 14 11. Between Risk and Confession: The Popularization of Syphilis Prophylaxis in Revolutionary Mexico
Chapter 15 12. Saving Lives, Destroying Livelihoods: Emergency Evacuation and Resettlement Policies in Ecuador
Chapter 16 13. Social Illegitimacy as a Foundation of Health Inequality: How the Political Treatment of Immigrants Illuminates a French Paradox
Chapter 17 14. The Indian Health Transfer Policy in Canada: Toward Self-Determination or Cost Containment?
Chapter 18 15. Land and Rural New Mexican Hispanics' Mistrust of Federal Programs: The Unintended Consequences of Medicaid Eligibility Rules
Chapter 19 16. The Death and Resurrection of Medicaid Managed Care for Mental Health Services in New Mexico
Chapter 20 17. Sugar Blues: A Social Anatomy of the Diabetes Epidemic in the United States
Chapter 21 18. Syringe Access, HIV Risk, and AIDS in Massachusetts and Connecticut: The Health Implications of Public Policy
Chapter 22 19. Why it is Easier to Get Drugs than Drug Treatment in the United States?
Chapter 23 20. U.S. Inner City Apartheid and the War on Drugs: Crack among Homeless Heroin Addicts
Chapter 24
Chapter III. Impact of Policy on the Practice of Medicine
Chapter 25 21. United States Health Policy on Alternative Medicine: A Case Study in the Co-optation of a Popular Movement
Chapter 26 22. Home Birth Emergencies in the United States: The Trouble with Transport
Chapter 27 23. Why Is Prevention Not the Focus for Breast Cancer Policy in the Unites States Rather than High-Tech Medical Solutions?
Chapter 28 Index