Health Policy:

Search Tips

Below you will find some sample search terms you can use to begin your research on health policy. You can use these terms to search in the Thesaurus or Index of a database to come up with even more terms. For a list of relevant databases, see the Health Policy Databases page. 

• Health Policy United States
• Medicaid
• Medicare
• Affordable Care Act
• Patient Protection
• Legislation and Jurisprudence
• Insurance Coverage statistics
• Health Care Reform
• Health Policy Trends
• Public Health
• Rules and regulations
• Health Policy Evaluation
• Health Care Policy
• Policy Making
• Federal legislation

When searching in databases, it is helpful to use the Thesaurus feature to identify the most appropriate search terms for a particular database. This tool is located at the top of the Advanced Search page and sometimes it is called Subject Headings or Subject Terms instead of Thesaurus. Almost all databases have some equivalent of this tool.

In the EBSCO company databases, locate the link. It is often above the search boxes.

In the ProQuest company databases, locate the link. It is often above the search boxes.

When you enter your keywords into the Thesaurus, it will give you a list of Suggested terms, Broader terms, Narrower terms, Related terms, and Used for terms. For example, when you search for mental disorders, you may be told to use mental illness instead.This can really help you generate a good collection of search terms and it ensures you are optimizing your searches in that particular database.

For tips on constructing your strings of search terms, please see our page on Boolean Operators, located in the Keyword Searching guide.