One Nation, Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance
From Publishers Weekly
According to Quadagno, the short answer to her subtitle is a fairly easy one: America lacks national health insurance because powerful interests have always managed to prevent Congress from passing the necessary legislation. As this slim history shows, however, those interest groups weren’t always the obvious suspects. Although Quadagno, a sociologist and former presidential advisor, does write plenty about how organized physicians and insurance companies have (more…)
Tagged with: Health • Health Insurance • Insurance • insurance companies • Nation • National • Paperback • U.S. • Uninsured
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good supplement to Daschle’s book
Much more detailed and thematic than Critical, Tom Daschle’s survey of healthcare reform and brief policy presentation, this book is still very readable and is necessary for…
In One Nation, Uninsured sociologist Jill Quadagno explains how powerful stakeholders have blocked every proposal for universal health care coverage from the Progressive Era through the Clinton debacle. A beautifully written and compelling account of 100 years of health policy history told with a novelist’s flair and an historian’s eye for detail.
One Nation Uninsured is brought to life in a fresh way by various first-hand recollections that are peppered throughout detailed, academic sketches of the major historical episodes that failed to produce national health insurance. Instead of reading like another dry textbook, this book provides an informative, intimate, and plausible narrative of why many of the major players did what they did in light of their different circumstances, motivations, and temperaments. Particular attention is also paid to other important non-health care events, such as the Red Scare, Brown v. Board of Education, Watergate, and Iran-Contra, as they indirectly affected the political will to mobilize for and against national health insurance, making this account all the more believable and nicely nuanced.
My only complaint is that since the book was published in 2005, 2006 Part D legislation which expanded Medicare coverage, could not be discussed, but hopefully an updated edition will be written in a few years. Overall, a surprisingly interesting and readable primer on such a complex issue.
5.0 out of 5 stars
book was cheap and new
the book came on time, looks new and was incredibly cheap
5.0 out of 5 stars
Praise for One Nation, Uninsured”An important book. Jill Quadagno provides an impressive array of historical evidence to advance original arguments for why the United States lacks a comprehensive health…
1.0 out of 5 stars
More bogus literature
See my review of “Uninsured in America: Life & Death in the Land of Opportunity” for reasons why this argument is bogus and filled with lies.
Very enlightening historical perspective on national health insurance. It seems special interests dominant in our democratic society. Quite surprising that both republican & democratic presidents tried to pass national health insurance. Special interests contribute to both parties and when the going gets close focus on those candidates who are vulnerable in order to entice their vote.
In our current lack of bi-partisian political climate, it seems very doubtful that national health insurance has a chance of being passed.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful Interests Have Blocked Every Effort With Lies
The USA is the only advanced country in the world without national health insurance because every effort to establish national health insurance has been blocked by the greed of…