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You are here > Home > Reading Lists > Politics, Policy & Reform > One Nation, Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance One Nation, Uninsured: Why the
U.S. Has No National Health Insurance, New Edition Softcover: 288 pages
One Nation, Uninsured offers a sweeping history of the battles over health care. It is an invaluable read for anyone who has a stake in the future of America's health care system. These are the book's chapters:
Every industrial nation in the world guarantees its citizens access to essential health care services - every country, that is, except the United States. In fact, one in eight Americans - a shocking 43 million people - do not have any health care insurance at all. One Nation, Uninsured offers a vividly written history of America's failed efforts to address the health care needs of its citizens. Covering the entire twentieth century, Jill Quadagno shows how each attempt to enact national health insurance was met with fierce attacks by powerful stakeholders, who mobilized their considerable resources to keep the financing of health care out of the government's hands. "A strongly argued account that provides useful ammunition for anyone seeking to effect change in a medical system that willfully excludes so many who need it." --Kirkus Reviews "Briskly written...an excellent primer for anybody interested in picking up the reform banner today.... Fresh, engaging." --Jonathan Cohn, Washington Post Book World "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 care system and why health insurance should be viewed as a social right. This book is must reading for those concerned about health care reform in the United States." --William Julius Wilson, author of When Work Disappears "Jill Quadagno has produced the most
comprehensive and up-to-date account of the power and effectiveness
of interest groups in defeating a century of national health
insurance reform campaigns. An impressive combination of theory and
historical research, One Nation, Uninsured sets the
parameters for the next round of debate over why the U.S. remains
the only country without universal health insurance and how it might
still expand access while reigning in costs."--Lawrence R. Jacobs,
University of Minnesota "A chilling historical account of how powerful groups with self-serving financial interests have successfully blocked attempts to enact national health insurance for seven decades, leaving tens of millions of our citizens without adequate health care coverage and often without even minimal care. Anyone eager to seek reform of our badly fragmented health care system must study its lessons and its blueprint for action; a task that will require nearly unprecedented political skills and monumental organizational prowess." --Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D., author of On The Take: How Medicine's Complicity With Big Business Can Endanger Your Health "Quadagno, a distinguished sociologist with a long-standing interest in policy, explores a century of government attempts to create universal health care and the powerful forces that have defeated those attempts.... Her sociological insights illuminate a path to reform." --Judy Goldstein Botello, The San Diego Union-Tribune "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... Quadagno unapologetically advocates for the sort of program that the United States has so far failed to adopt, but admits that it will never happen until health care is considered a 'social right, not a consumer product.' Her analysis of the repeated defeats is unlikely to find much traction with anyone besides the hardcore policy wonks, however, as her blow-by-blow accounts of the political battles fail to generate much heat." - Publishers Weekly "The troubles of the U.S. health care system make front-page news almost every day. As costs rise, employers are cutting back on coverage for employees or offering none at all. State governments say they can't pump more money into Medicaid to pick up the slack, while safety-net hospitals say they're maxed out, too. The result: Tens of millions of Americans cannot afford basic care... While acknowledging all the different factors that have blocked universal coverage in the past, Quadagno, a Florida State University sociologist, argues that the most significant obstacle has been the virulent opposition of special interests that profit from existing health care arrangements, however flawed... Still, it's hard to quibble with Quadagno's thesis too much since, as she shows, virtually every major evolution in the financing of U.S. medical care has occurred only when special interests themselves demanded change -- and even then only in ways that conformed to their ideological and financial preferences. Private insurance began to spread in the 1930s, when hospitals were desperate for paying patients to fill their beds; managed care took off in the 1990s because employers were desperate to control the cost of employee benefits. But each development represented an alternative to proposals for universal health insurance, which, the special interests feared, would encourage government interference in medicine and beyond... Understandably glum about the immediate future, Quadagno suggests that today's reformers concentrate on incremental initiatives identical to the ones Sen. John F. Kerry proposed in the 2004 presidential campaign. But if Quadagno's book teaches anything, it's that such half-measures buy only modest relief and, even then, only for a little while. That's why the more important message of her book is about political strategy. Quadagno notes that in addition to outspending the proponents of universal coverage, special interests have also done a better job of grass-roots organizing (by, for example, using doctors and insurance agents to carry anti-reform messages within communities). And while the opponents of reform have maintained impressive ideological unity, coalitions on the left have frequently splintered... Quadagno's ultimate message seems to be that politics are more important than policy -- that progressives won't achieve universal coverage unless they learn to operate like the special interests of the right. She's probably correct -- which is why her richly constructed history could prove so handy in the months and years to come." - Reviewed by Jonathan Cohn, The Washington Post Jill Quadagno is the Mildred and Claude Pepper Eminent Scholar in Social Gerontology and Professor of Sociology at Florida State University. A past president of the American Sociological Association, she served as Senior Policy Advisor on the President's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform in 1994. Hardcover: 288 pages
One Nation, Uninsured offers a sweeping history of the battles over health care. It is an invaluable read for anyone who has a stake in the future of America's health care system. If you are interested in policy or books about health care reform, please see our up-to-date collection here: Politics, Policy & Reform. (information from the publisher) Jump to a List / Health Administration & Leadership / Physician Executive, Medical Staff & Practice Management / Finance, Accounting, Economics, Billing & Reimbursement / Coding for Hospital, Physician & Clinical Services / Law, Malpractice, Ethics, Accreditation & Compliance / Quality Improvement, Outcomes & Customer Service / Risk Management, Security, Error Reduction & Patient Safety / Information Systems, Technology & Medical Records / Clinical Management & Executive Nursing / Behavioral Health, Social Work & Psychiatry Management / Human Resources, Management & Supervision / Directories, Data, Trends & Benchmarks / Software & CD-ROMs / Gift Ideas & Recommended Gifts / Journals, Magazines & Newsletters / Search for Books / Books Index / You may also be interested in: / Directory of Healthcare Recruiters / Return to Pages: / Home Page / Toolbox for Health Administrators / Book Lists & Bookstore |
