Issue Briefs

Arizona Health Futures Issue Briefs provide an overview of critical health issues in Arizona from a public policy perspective. They are intended to present a balanced, independent assessment of health policy and resource allocation choices facing the state.

Re-Knitting the Safety Net, Part III: Arizona’s Emerging Healthcare Landscape (March 2013) The third of a three-part series examines the impact of budget cuts, the ramifications of health care reform, the potential for widening holes in, and the uncertain future of Arizona’s healthcare safety net.

Putting the Pieces (Back) Together: Public Health and Prevention, Part II: Arizona’s Emerging Healthcare Landscape (December 2011) The second of a three-part series examining the impact of state budget cuts, Putting the Pieces (Back) Together looks at how budget cuts and other changes are affecting Arizona’s health system and the people it serves.

After the Dust Settles, Part I: Arizona’s Emerging Healthcare Landscape, Our Most Vulnerable Citizens (April 2011)
The first of a three-part series examining the impact of state budget cuts, After the Dust Settles looks at our most vulnerable citizens, describes their current systems of care, analyzes the cuts and looks towards opportunities for a future system that meets their desired and required needs.

Goodbye, Hello: Framing the Future of Primary Care, Part II – Bending the Possibility Arrow (January 2010)
Delve into emerging programs, practice models, workforce propositions, the role of technology and various other schema proposed or being piloted for primary care, and learn more about where we might be headed.

Goodbye, Hello: Framing the Future of Primary Care, Part I – The Primary Care Parade (December 2009)
Exploring primary care’s history, trends, workforce and current practice environment, The Primary Care Parade includes primary and secondary research, data from the 2008 Arizona Health Survey, analysis from the Center for Health Information and Research at ASU, in-depth interviews with 25 Arizona informants and stakeholders, and quotes and interpretations from eight Arizona focus groups.

Weave the People: Threading Healthy Communities (November 2008)
An amalgamation of expert thinking, local knowledge, history and stories applied to health within the shifting context of community in the 21st Century.

Balancing Act: Ethics in Health Care (August 2008)
A comprehensive overview of ethical dilemmas and strategies for addressing them, produced in partnership with bioethicists at St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center.

Gray Land: Housing for People with Serious Mental Illness in Maricopa County (January 2008)
A collaborative inquiry into the challenges, opportunities and successes to be found in a complex and critical environment.

Collaborate to Compete: A Prescription for Value-Based Health Care in Arizona (April 2007)
There’s a revolution coming to American Medicine, centered on delivery of true “value” in health care. Collaborate to Compete unpacks the current situation, posits a prescription for value-based health care, including scenarios for the year 2030.

Flashpoint: Children, Adolescents and Psychotropic Medicines (August 2006)
Are psychotropic medicines helping our children, or do they represent the “medicalization” of normal behavior without considering long-term consequences? Find out in this report.
Learn more. We surveyed sources from 1992 to the present in developing Flashpoint. Below you’ll find information on those works, along with links where permitted.

Squeezing the Rock II: Maricopa County’s Health Safety Net (May 2006)
An update of our 2002 report that tracks what’s changed and what hasn’t among principal providers and clients.

Dancing on a Pin: Health Planning in Arizona (November 2005)
The state of health planning – or lack thereof – in Arizona, and what we can do about it.

Mind, Mood and Message: Pathways in Community Behavioral Health (January 2005)
Community survey implications and the use of resilience in changing the behavioral health paradigm.

Arizona CAN! Coverage and Access Now (Winter 2004)
Analysis of four models to expand health insurance coverage in Arizona.

Resilience: Health in a New Key (Fall 2003)
Exploration of a strength-based approach to health and community development.

Health in a New Key Pocket Guide
Pocket version of Resilience: Health in a New Key.

The Humpty Dumpty Syndrome: Integration and Behavioral Health (Winter 2003)
Strategies to integrate behavioral health and primary care.

Building a Public Health Movement in Arizona (Fall 2002)
Exploration of the role and relationship of public health to the larger healthcare system.

BOOM OR BUST? The Future of the Health Care Workforce in Arizona (Spring 2002)
Overview of health professions in Arizona.

Squeezing the Rock: Maricopa County’s Health Safety Net (Winter 2002)
A look at the organizations that serve the uninsured, Medicaid and other vulnerable populations.

Trauma: The Canary in the Mine (Fall 2001)
Issues concerning level one trauma centers in Arizona.

Got Quality? The Search for Perfection in an Imperfect Health Care System (Spring 2001)
Defining the concept of quality in healthcare.