eBook

Dead on arrival

Gordon, Colin

2003,2009

Overview

Why, alone among industrial democracies, does the United States not have national health insurance? While many books have addressed this question, Dead on Arrival is the first to do so based on original archival research for the full sweep of the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide range of political, reform, business, and labor records, Colin Gordon traces a complex and interwoven story of political failure and private response. He examines, in turn, the emergence of private, work-based benefits; the uniquely American pursuit of social insurance; the influence of race and gender on the health care debate; and the ongoing confrontation between reformers and powerful economic and health interests.Dead on Arrival stands alone in accounting for the failure of national or universal health policy from the early twentieth century to the present. As importantly, it also suggests how various interests (doctors, hospitals, patients, workers, employers, labor unions, medical reformers, and political parties) confronted the question of health care - as a private responsibility, as a job-based benefit, as a political obligation, and as a fundamental right.Using health care as a window onto the logic of American politics and American social provision, Gordon both deepens and informs the contemporary debate. Fluidly written and deftly argued, Dead on Arrival is thus not only a compelling history of the health care quandary but a fascinating exploration of the country's political economy and political culture through the American century, of the role of private interests and private benefits in the shaping of social policy, and, ultimately, of the ways the American welfare state empowers but also imprisons its citizens.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: 20th Century / Activism / African Americans / American exceptionalism / Collective bargaining / Cost accounting / Deductible / Employee benefit / Employment / Family wage / Federal Security Agency / Government / Group insurance / Group Practice / Health Advocate / Health care / Health care in the United States / Health care reform / Health economics / Health insurance / Health insurance in the United States / Health insurance mandate / Health maintenance organization / Health Policy / Health Sciences / Health system / Healthcare industry / HISTORY / HISTORY / United States / 20th Century / Hospital / Income / Insurance / Labour movement / Legislation / Legislator / Lobbying / Maternal health / Medicaid / MEDICAL / MEDICAL / Health Policy / Medical care / Medical care -- Political aspects -- United States / Medical education / Medical policy / Medical policy -- United States / National health insurance / Payment / Payroll tax / Pension / Physician / Policy / Political agenda / Political aspects / Political culture / Political Science / POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare / Politician / Politics / Progressive Era / Provision (contracting) / Public health / Public policy / Racial segregation / Regulation / Reimbursement / Reinsurance / Self-insurance / Social insurance / Social policy / Social Security Act / Socialized medicine / Southern Democrats / State Children's Health Insurance Program / Subsidy / Tax / Trade union / Unemployment / United States / Universal health care / Wage / Welfare / Welfare capitalism / Welfare state / World War II
• ISBN: 1400825679, 0691119511, 0691058067, 9780691058061, 9780691119519, 9781400825677