Title:
Remedy and reaction : the peculiar American struggle over health care reform / Paul Starr.
Author:
Starr, Paul, 1949-
Publication Information:
New Haven : Yale University Press, c2011.
Call Number:
RA395 .A3 S768 2011
Abstract:
"In no other country has health care served as such a volatile flashpoint of ideological conflict. America has endured a century of rancorous debate on health insurance, and despite the passage of legislation in 2010, the battle is not yet over. This book is a history of how and why the United States became so stubbornly different in health care, presented by an expert with unsurpassed knowledge of the issues.Tracing health-care reform from its beginnings to its current uncertain prospects, Paul Starr argues that the United States ensnared itself in a trap through policies that satisfied enough of the public and so enriched the health-care industry as to make the system difficult to change. He reveals the inside story of the rise and fall of the Clinton health plan in the early 1990s--and of the Gingrich counterrevolution that followed. And he explains the curious tale of how Mitt Romney's reforms in Massachusetts became a model for Democrats and then follows both the passage of those reforms under Obama and the explosive reaction they elicited from conservatives. Writing concisely and with an even hand, the author offers exactly what is needed as the debate continues--a penetrating account of how health care became such treacherous terrain in American politics"--Provided by publisher.
ISBN:
9780300171099
Physical Description:
xii, 324 p. ; 25 cm.
Subject Term:
Contents:
An uneasy victory ; The making of a national impasse ; A window for reform ; Choices and vulnerabilities -- The genealogy of health-care reform. Evolution through defeat ; Progressive health insurance, 1915-1919 ; The New Deal and national health insurance, 1935-1950 ; The growth of the protected public, 1950-1965 ; Stumbling toward comprehensive reform ; Political deadlock, 1969-1980 ; Political reversals, 1981-1990 ; The American path in health insurance -- Frustrated ambitions, liberal and conservative. The shaping of the Clinton Health Plan, 1991-1993 ; A new framework ; Clinton's decisions ; Getting to no, 1994 ; The Democrats' disorder ; The big turnabout ; The collapse of Congressional compromise ; Why no reform? ; Comes the counterrevolution, 1995-2006 ; Gingrich and the end of entitlements ; From bold leaps to baby steps ; A Republican window ; Return to crisis -- Rollercoaster. The rise of a reform consensus, 2006-2008 ; Romney and the Massachusetts model ; Toward minimally invasive reform ; Making 2008 a health-care election ; Prepare to launch ; Breaking through, 2009-2010 ; Health care first ; Bipartisanship in one party ; Reaction and resolve ; Obama and the rollercoaster to reform ; Why health-care reform passed (and climate legislation didn't) ; The Affordable Care Act as public philosophy ; Fairness and equality ; Responsibility and freedom ; Federalism and finance ; Health and the public household ; Reform's uncertain fate ; Political backlash and the courts ; The peculiar struggle.
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