How Government Created and Shaped the U.S. Nursing Home Industry

Authors

Leslie King, Smith CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2020

Publication Title

Critical Sociology

Abstract

Beginning in the 1960s, U.S. government policy largely created, and subsequently facilitated the corporatization of, a powerful, multi-billion dollar nursing home industry. Using data from trade publications, government agency reports, Congressional hearings, newspaper reports and existing scholarly research, I chart the relationship between the state and the U.S. nursing home industry over four time periods to reveal how, at different moments, government policy contributed to first the creation, then the corporatization and consolidation of the industry. I argue that the trajectory of Medicare and Medicaid policy is not wholly neoliberal but neither should it be considered progressive.

Keywords

corporations, health care, Medicaid, Medicare, neoliberalism, nursing home industry, political economy

Volume

46

Issue

6

First Page

881

Last Page

897

DOI

10.1177/0896920519853020

ISSN

08969205

Rights

© The Author(s) 2019

Comments

Archived as published.

Recommended Citation

King, Leslie, "How Government Created and Shaped the U.S. Nursing Home Industry" (2020). Sociology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/soc_facpubs/11