  
	
  
Snapshots of Change in Fifteen Communities:
The Role of Public Policy in Health Care Market Change
Summer 1996 
Health Affairs, vol.15, no.2 (Summer 1996): 77-91 
 Aaron  Katz, Jack  Thompson 
 arket forces appear dominant in the transformation of health care
    systems across the United States. However, in many markets public policy remains an
    important factor - guiding, facilitating, and in some cases prompting change. This paper
    reviews how the debate over health care reform acted as a catalyst in local health care
    financing and delivery systems, and how other public policy tools are affecting the
    fifteen markets studied in the Community Snapshots project. We then discuss prospects for
    public policy in the near term and the longer term, using the two scenarios to illustrate
    possible future roles.  
 Free access to this article is available at the Health 
  Affairs Web site. 
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