Federal antitrust policy and physician discontent: defining moments in the struggle for congressional relief

Organized medicine has battled the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) since the 1970s over enforcement of the antitrust laws. Physicians' discontent stems from the belief that federal policy allows managed care organizations to achieve dominance in health care markets just as it discourages physicians from taking collective action to protect their interests. This article examines two important efforts by organized medicine over a twenty-year interval to alter federal antitrust policy. In 1982, physicians and other professionals sought a special exemption from FTC jurisdiction; beginning in 1998, physicians promoted legislation that would exempt independent practitioners from the antitrust laws for collective bargaining purposes. Both initiatives passed in the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate. This article uses an advocacy coalition framework to reinterpret the events and to assess the reasons for legislative failure. The evidence suggests that in both instances, although twenty years apart, consumer groups and federal bureaucrats determined the outcome in favor of corporate medicine.     

NOT (QUITE) A HORSE AND CARRIAGE

This note critically interrogates the Civil Partnership Act 2004. Through an examination of the legislative background and some of the provisions of the Act, it is argued that civil partnership mirrors a marriage model with some exceptions. In creating this new legal status, the legislation also exacerbates the exclusion of some relationship forms from dominant legal norms. It should be understood as part of an agenda for social inclusion, rather than as radical social change.     

Existential Anxiety in Adolescents: Prevalence, Structure, Association with Psychological Symptoms and Identity Development

Existential anxiety is hypothesized to be a core human issue in a great deal of theoretical and philosophical writing. However, little is known about the emergence of these concerns and their relation to emotional functioning in youth. The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of existential anxiety in a sample of adolescents. Data on existential concerns, identity development and psychological symptoms were collected on a sample of 139 youth in grades 9–12. Results indicated that existential anxiety concerns have a theoretically consistent factor structure, are common among adolescents, and are associated with psychological symptoms, as well as identity issues. Results are discussed with regard to the importance of existential concerns in the lives of youth and the need for additional research.Received PhD from Florida International University. Interests are identity development including associated anxiety and distress, cross-national comparisons, and the development of identity interventions.Received PhD from Florida International University. Interests focus on the developmental psychopathology of anxiety and depression.Received PhD from the University of Arizona. Interests include a range of topics in developmental psychopathology, prevention, program evaluation, and research methodology.     

The Role of Management and Representation in Improving Performance of Disadvantaged Students: An Application of Bum Phillips's “Don Shula Rule”1

Scholars and practitioners within the U.S. education system have focused considerable attention on developing new programs aimed at raising educational achievement for disadvantaged students. New programs are only one way to improve student performance, however; recent work in public administration suggests that public management and implementation practices might also have a large impact on student performance. Existing research shows that managerial networking, managerial quality, and effective personnel management can significantly improve the quality of the education received by disadvantaged students. Additional work highlights the contribution of representative bureaucracy. Because these research agendas have targeted the public administration literature rather than the education policy literature, this article seeks to bring this research back to education policy. Using data from several hundred Texas public school districts, spanning 1995 to 2002, and focusing on disadvantaged student performance (Latinos, blacks, and low‐income students), this article illustrates how both management and processes to enhance the representativeness of teaching faculty produce benefits for disadvantaged students.     

Church attendance,meaningfulness of religion,and depressive symptomatology among adolescents

Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 451 adolescents at a public high school in Texas during the spring semester 1989. The instrument used contained the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and items to determine participants' gender, frequency of church attendance, and meaningfulness of one's religion. Based on social support research and the writings of Carl Jung and Viktor Frankl, it was predicted that those who attended church frequently and those who viewed their religions as providing meaning for their lives would have lower BDI scores than their classmates. The findings supported these predictions. Implications and a discussion of the results are included.Received Ed.D. in educational psychology from University of Illinois. Main research interests are substance abuse in adolescents, drug use prevention strategies, and suicidal ideation in adolescents.Received Ph.D. in general psychology from Boston University. Main research interest is psychology in interdisciplinary perspective, with a specialization in the psychology of religion.Pursuing a M.Ed, in school psychology at Southwest Texas State University. Main research interests are psychological testing and assessment.     

Shirking and political support in the U.S. Senate, 1964–1984

Several empirical studies have suggested that legislators engage in a surprisingly large degree of on-the-job consumption, or ideological behavior. These findings cast doubt on the hypothesis that legislators can be modelled as though they seek to maximize political support. This paper attempts to determine whether commonly used proxies for ideology in fact represent behavior to which voters are averse. The results show that legislators who engage in more of this behavior lose general-election support without generally receiving compensating increases in partyprimary support. A corollary to this result is that voters punish shirking legislators significantly.     

Morphine-3-D glucuronide stability in postmortem specimens exposed to bacterial enzymatic hydrolysis

Medical examiners frequently rely on the finding of free morphine present in postmortem specimens to assist in certifying deaths associated with narcotics. In vitro hydrolysis of morphine-3-D glucuronide (M3DG) to free morphine was studied using variable specimen pH, initial degree of specimen putrefaction, storage temperature and time, and the effectiveness of sodium fluoride (NaF) preservation. Reagent M3DG was added to opiate-free fresh blood and urine and to autopsy-derived blood specimens. Reagent bovine glucuronidase was also added to certain specimens. Freshly collected and refrigerated NaF-preserved blood produced minimal free morphine, whereas four of five autopsy blood specimens produced free morphine from M3DG. Increased storage time, temperature, and initial degree of putrefaction resulted in greater free morphine generation despite the absence of viable bacteria. Hydrolysis occurring during specimen storage can generate free morphine from M3DG and may result in erroneous conclusions in certifying narcotic deaths.