As an extension of a contribution by Health Policy and Law to Public Health Education in areas of mutual concern, a descriptive model of cost containment policy in health care delivery is developed. The model starts from the basis of a typology of key Congressional enactments promoting economically motivated policymaking in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. These policies and laws are, in turn, related to the resulting multilevel adaptive behavior in health care services delivery and acquisition. From this descriptive model the thesis is developed that although government has improved its effectiveness in attaining economic and budgetary goals, this type of policy is also creating displacements and generally leading to the retrenchment of national commitment to equity-promoting social welfare policy and the possibility of abandoning longstanding historical commitments on strictly economic and budgetary grounds. The article concludes by placing emphasis on the need for public health disciplines to collaborate in order to strengthen national policy, to create a new health policy synthesis, and to strengthen the ability of individuals to qualitatively improve their situation and more effectively assert their health and social welfare rights.
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