• PAIS - Most useful for international health care policy or health care in individual countries. Abstracts only from 1937+
• PolicyFile - public policy topics, linking to reports and papers from think tanks, NGOs, and research organizations, 1990 to present. Watch for bias!
• SocINDEX with Full text - articles on all aspects of sociology; selected full text from 1963+.
• CQ Researcher - detailed articles on policy issues including health care

• Academic Search Complete and Expanded Academic ASAP - great starting points for scholarly & popular articles in every discipline; mostly full text from 1980+

Find Newspaper Articles

• LexisNexis Academic News - U.S. and International news from 1980s+. There is a Source of Healthcare News, but this may be more industry-oreinted than policy.
• Westlaw Campus Research - similar to LexisNexis Academic News, but there may be unique content.

Other databases may be useful for you, depending on your specific topic and approach. See our A-Z list for a complete list of databases or AskUs and get some customized suggestions.

• National Center for Health Statistics (United States) includes FASTATS from A-Z.
• Health Data Tools and Statistics [Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce]
• U.S. Health Care datasets and summary statistics
• Small Area Health Insurance Estimates - estimates of health insurance coverage for states and all counties
• Health Insurance Coverage by state, sex, and race can be found in LexisNexis Statistical. Choose Customize Data, then health
• The Health Care Utilization Project (HCUP) is sponsored by the U.S. Agency for Health Care Quality and Research and provides data on hospital admissions, stays, and discharges, and methods of payment. Data are by age, gender, race, and diagnosis. Go into LexisNexis Statistical, Customize Data, then HCUP..
• American Health: demographics and spending of health care consumers. Clapp Ref RA 445 .A447 2005
• Health and Healthcare in the United States: County and Metro Area Data. Clapp Ref RA 407.3 H415 2nd ed. 2000.   A compendium of health-related statistics for each county and metropolitan area in the United States.
• Health Care System DataSource. Clapp Ref RA 410.53 H4 1999. State and local health system data.
• World Health Organization - international country coverage
• Government agencies and NGOs may also have links to statistics on their Web sites

Tracking Legislation

• CQ Weekly and CQ Almanac for the status of federal legislation
• National Journal - weekly magazine containing "nonpartisan reporting on the current political environment and emerging policy trends"
• CongressDaily [from National Journal] - "twice-daily news service for definitive analysis on Congress and legislation"
• LexisNexis Congressional (federal) - find committee hearings, full text of bills, bill status.
• LexisNexis State Capital (state) - find the full text of state bills and laws.

NOTE: Using a search engine to search for material is very tempting but is to be used with caution. You will find a lot of information on social issues but many are advocating a particular point of view which must be recognized in order to write a scholarly paper. Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

For more information on how to evaluate web pages see our search the web page.

• American Association of Medical Colleges - note link to issues on the left bar
• American Association of Health Plans
• American Public Human Services Association - Founded in 1930, "the mission of APHSA is to develop, promote, and implement public human service policies that improve the health and well-being of families, children, and adults".
• Health Issues, from the National Center for Policy Analysis.
• Health Reform from the Commonwealth Fund, "a private foundation that supports independent research on health and social issues and makes grants to improve health care practice and policy".
• "The High Price of Health", a PBS Frontline Special, a close examination of the effects of managed healthcare on physicians, nurses, and patients, primarily in the United States. 
• Issue Briefs from the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Kaiser Family Foundation - "non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the nation".
• WebEc's Health and Welfare
• "Who Are the Uninsured" - report by the Employment Policies Institute, 6/09.

Health Care from U.S. Government Sources

See the course page for American Politics for sources on tracing legislation, issues before Congress, interest groups, etc.

• Selected Web pages from the U.S. Federal Government
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Includes clinical information, research findings, quality assessment, and data/surveys as well as consumer/patient information. Also spotlights: Child Health, Women's Health, and Minority Health.
  • Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) - collects and analyzes data, estimates costs, and assesses policies related to mental health services within managed care.
  • Healthcare Systems Bureau from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
  • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (HCFA) includes federal health care regulations and topics related to fraud, waste, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
  • Medicare. Includes tools for comparing different Medicare-managed health plans (from HMO's) and private Fee-for-Service plans and for comparing nursing homes.
  • Medicaid
  • Planning and Evaluation, with the Dept. of Health and Human Services, is responsible for issues around policy coordination, strategic planning, policy research and development, and economic analysis.
  • SAMHSA Behavioral Health Headlines Database - a current awareness tool which abstracts articles related to public sector health and behavioral health services from over 150 national, state, and local newspapers, trade newsletters, professional journals, national and state reports, and SAMHSA Tracking staff interviews with key informants.
  • Congressional Budget Office reports

• Presidential Initiatives
  • National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare created by Congress in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and charged with examining the Medicare program and making recommendations to strengthen and improve it.
  • President's Advisory Commission... Quality in the Health Care Industry (1998)
• President Obama's Health Reform
  • HealthReform.gov - President Obama's health care initiative
  • Health Care Reform: An Introduction - a CRS report. View other CRS reports on health care policy from the Public Forum Institute.
  • H.R. 3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. House Committee on Education and Labor.
  • Senate Finance Committee Plan, Chairman, Max Baucus and Senate Finance Committee health legislation
  • S. 1679, health care bill introduced by Sen. Tom Larkin on 9/17/09 (Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee)
  • Budgetary Treatment of Proposals to Change the Nation's Health Insurance System [Congressional Budget Office]
  • Cost estimates: Medicare, Title I[Congressional Budget Office]
  • Preliminary analysis of specifications for the Chairman’s mark for proposed health care legislation 9/16/09 [Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation]
  • Side-by-Side Comparison of Major health Care Reform proposals [Kaiser Family Foundation]

• State-level Organizations
  • Federal health Care Reform from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
  • National Academy for State Health Policy focuses on healthcare access for uninsured in our population; long-term, chronic, and managed care; ways to purchase insurance cost-effectively in the marketplace.
  • U.S. state health care agencies

• Local Organization
  • National Association of County and City Health Officials represents more than 3000 local departments of health in the United States.

Resources on Health Care in Other Countries

Health, Nutrition, and Population and Health systems and Financing [World Bank]. Wonderful links to health care and health reform in other countries.

OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] - has health statistics as well as publications

Pan American Health Organization - Full text of reports on various health topics. Includes the full text of the Epidemiological Bulletin from 1995+ and the Pan American Journal of Public Health.. Data include Country health profiles and basic health indicators.

The World Health Report [World Health Organization]. 1995+.

The World Health Organization - note especially the links to countries and topics.

Citing Sources

Use the links under Citing Sources on the Wellesley College Library website