The Wages of Sickness | The Politics of Health Insurance in Progressive America

Beatrix Hoffman

ISBN 10: 0807849022 / ISBN 13: 9780807849026

Published by The University of North Carolina Press, 2001

About this Item

The Wages of Sickness | The Politics of Health Insurance in Progressive America | Beatrix Hoffman | Taschenbuch | Einband - flex.(Paperback) | Englisch | 2001 | The University of North Carolina Press | EAN 9780807849026 | Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, 36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr[at]libri[dot]de | Anbieter: preigu Print on Demand.

Seller Inventory # 106005738

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Wages of Sickness | The Politics of Health Insurance in Progressive America
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807849022
• ISBN 13: 9780807849026
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 234W x 156H x 17D millimeters 234 millimeters width by 156 millimeters height by 17 millimeters depth
• Weight: 481 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Bücher

About this title

Synopsis

The Clinton administration’s failed health care reform was not the first attempt to establish government-sponsored medical coverage in the United States. From 1915 to 1920, Progressive reformers led a spirited but ultimately unsuccessful crusade for compulsory health insurance in New York State. Beatrix Hoffman argues that this first health insurance campaign was a crucial moment in the creation of the American welfare state and health care system. Its defeat, she says, gave rise to an uneven and inegalitarian system of medical coverage and helped shape the limits of American social policy for the rest of the century.

Hoffman examines each of the major combatants in the battle over compulsory health insurance. While physicians, employers, the insurance industry, and conservative politicians forged a uniquely powerful coalition in opposition to health insurance proposals, she shows, reformers' potential allies within women’s organizations and the labor movement were bitterly divided. Against the backdrop of World War I and the Red Scare, opponents of reform denounced government-sponsored health insurance as “un-American” and, in the process, helped fashion a political culture that resists proposals for universal health care and a comprehensive welfare state even today.

About the Author

Beatrix Hoffman is assistant professor of history at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.