New Visions for Public Affairs Volume 4
Articles
- Health Care System Structure and Delivery in the Republic of Korea – Considerations for Health Care Reform Implementation in the United States / Author: Rachel Linstead Goldsmith, MPA ’13
Abstract
As part of its plan for rapid economic development, South Korea achieved universal health insurance in 1988. In the ensuing years, the national government has continued to adjust health care system structure and care delivery mechanisms in response to social and political changes, culminating in a single-payer system in 2000. Further reforms have included improvements in pharmaceutical distribution, efforts to contain costs, and development of programs to care for older adults. This paper examines the underpinnings of health care system development in South Korea and offers lessons for the United States as it implements the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which addresses similar systemic issues. These include the challenges of controlling growing expenditures, administering coordinated care in a decentralized provider system, and providing care for an aging population.
- Urbanism and Gay Identity / Author: Paul Ruiz, MA ’13
Abstract
This paper proposes that the social, economic, and political drivers of urbanism constructed contemporary notions of gay identity. Starting around the mid-tolate twentieth century, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) individuals transformed urban spaces into centers of social, cultural, and political utility. As middle-class Americans suburbanized, socially stigmatized and emboldened gays settled into vacated urban spaces where deviant lifestyles were enshrined by the safety and anonymous milieu of the city (Bailey, 1998; Castells, 1983). Amid the physical construction of communities around residential and commercial gay concentrations, the social construction of a gay identity based on sexual personhood emerged contemporaneously (Lauria & Knopp, 1985). Although some scholars have commented on the topic of sexual identity and space (Castells, 1983; D’Emilio, 1981; Jackson, 1989; Knopp, 1990b), little research has been done to specifically connect identity to the drivers of urbanism. This paper provides a framework for further interdisciplinary research in sexual identity and community development.
- Assessing Lending Institutions’ Community Development Activities under the Community Reinvestment Act / Author: Jason Stoehr, MA ’12
Abstract
Most of the literature regarding banks’ performance under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has focused on mortgage lending, leaving other important effects of CRA on community development (CD) underexamined and overlooked. One of the reasons for this lack of research is that home lending data is more readily available. Another reason is that data on other CRA activities reported in CRA exams are vague and inconsistent. The lack of data makes it difficult to monitor and enforce CRA–regulated bank activity. To understand this gap, this paper presents a brief literature review of the history and intent of CRA, and an analysis of CRA examinations of large banks operating in Delaware released between 2008 and 2010. What CD activities are lending institutions undertaking to comply with CRA? How are activities measured and reported? Is the level of detail provided sufficient to assess the extent to which these investments are contributing to CD efforts? The findings of this inquiry reveal inconsistencies in how regulatory agencies rate lending institutions. These insights provide the basis for recommending reporting changes that can make the CRA an even more effective policy tool for helping communities access credit, and for helping community organizations provide services in underserved areas.
