Essentials of Health Policy and Law

Essentials of Health Policy and Law provides students of public health, medicine, nursing, public policy, and health administration with an introduction to a broad range of seminal issues in U.S. health policy and law, analytic frameworks for studying these complex issues, and an understanding of the ways in which health policies and laws are formulated, implemented, and applied.

The new Sixth Edition delivers a clear, engaging, and up‑to‑date roadmap to the policy and legal forces shaping today’s U.S. health care and public health systems. With refreshed statistics, reorganized chapters for improved clarity, expanded public health examples, and new content on health justice and the impact of mis- and disinformation, this edition equips students across the health professions with the insight and tools necessary to understand―and influence―the policies that shape population health.

Key Updates

- Coverage of recent Supreme Court rulings such as The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, and current U.S. Government administration policy changes
- New content on the use of mis- and disinformation to influence policy, and on health justice, including a description of the commercial drivers of health
- New “In-Depth” boxes in select chapters provide more detailed and advanced information about certain topics
- Updated figures, tables, and data
- Full suite of updated instructor resources including sample syllabus, slides in PowerPoint format, image bank, and test bank in LMS-compatible formats.

Introducing Claire AI™ ― Students' AI-Powered Mentor
- New to this edition is an AI‑powered study tool that provides students with around‑the‑clock academic support and personalized guidance. Built on Jones & Bartlett Learning–authored content, Claire AI helps students clarify concepts, reinforce understanding, and engage more confidently as they read, providing consistent, course‑aligned support throughout the learning experience.

Sara Wilensky, JD, PhD, is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University (GW) in Washington, DC.Dr. Wilensky has taught a health policy analysis course and health systems overview course required of all students in the Master of Public Health-Health Policy degree program, as well as the health policy course and a senior seminar course required of all undergraduate students majoring in public health. She has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on numerous health policy research projects relating to a variety of topics, such as Medicaid coverage, access and financing, community health centers, childhood obesity, HIV preventive services, financing of public hospitals, and data sharing barriers and opportunities between public health and Medicaid agencies.As the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, Dr. Wilensky oversees all aspects of GWSPH majors, minors, and dual-degree programs, sets the strategic vision for the undergraduate programs, and works with campus partners and outside stakeholders to improve undergraduate public health education.Dr. Wilensky is involved with several GW service activities: she has taught a service learning in public health elective course and a service learning senior seminar course in the undergraduate program; she is an affiliated faculty with the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service; she has been heavily involved in making GW's Writing in the Disciplines program part of the undergraduate major in public health; and she is the advisor to students receiving a master in public policy or a master in public administration with a focus on health policy from GW's School of Public Policy and Public Administration.Prior to joining GW, Dr. Wilensky was a law clerk for federal Judge Harvey Bartle III in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and worked as an associate at the law firm of Cutler and Stanfield, LLP, in Denver, Colorado.

Joel Teitelbaum, JD, LLM, is professor emeritus of public health and law, former director of the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program, and former Co-Director of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.' For 11 years served as vice-chair for academic affairs for the Department of Health Policy and Management.Professor Teitelbaum taught law, graduate, or undergraduate courses on healthcare law, healthcare civil rights, public health law, minority health policy, and long-term care law and policy. He was the first member of the School of Public Health faculty to receive the University-wide Bender Teaching Award, he received the School's Excellence in Teaching Award, and he was a member of the University's Academy of Distinguished Teachers and the School's Academy of Master Teachers. He authored or co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed articles and reports in addition to many book chapters, policy briefs, and blogs on law and social drivers of health, health equity, civil rights issues in health care, health reform and its implementation, medical-legal partnership, and insurance law and policy, and he delivered more than 100 invited lectures/presentations at leading universities and national conferences. He is co-author of both Essentials of Health Policy and Law (Fifth Edition) and Essentials of Health Justice: Law, Policy, and Structural Change (Second Edition). In 2000, Professor Teitelbaum was corecipient of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, which he used to explore the creation of a new framework for applying Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to the modern healthcare system.Among other organizations, Professor Teitelbaum was a member of Delta Omega, the national honor society recognizing excellence in the field of public health, and the ASPH/Pfizer Public Health Academy of Distinguished Teachers. In 2016, during President Obama's second term, Professor Teitelbaum became the first lawyer named to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives (a.k.a. "Healthy People"), the national agenda aimed at improving the health of all Americans over a 10-year span. He served as a member of the board of advisors of PREPARE, a national advanced care planning organization, and on multiple committees of the American Bar Association: as a liaison to the Task Force on Eviction, Housing Stability, and Equity, as an advisor to the Coordinating Committee on Veterans Benefits and Services, and as a member of the Advisory Board of the Public Health Legal Services Research Project in the Center for Human Rights.'