Book contents
Part III - The Politics of Public and Private Health Insurance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
I propose … the view that when the market fails to achieve an optimal state, society will, to some extent at least, recognize the gap, and nonmarket social institutions will arise attempting to bridge it.
– Kenneth Arrow, “Uncertainty and Welfare Economics of Medical Care”The choice is no longer between the traditional type of private practice on the one hand and voluntary health insurance on the other. … The alternative in the future is between some form of nonpolitical voluntary insured medical service, such as the state society is sponsoring, and something which will undoubtedly be much worse – state medicine, compulsory health insurance, socialized medicine, or something else.
– Medical Service Association of Pennsylvania, 1939Instead of turning the current system, which now insures 85 percent of Americans, on its head in order to extend coverage to the rest, the plan I will outline … will strengthen existing coverage and focus like a laser on the remaining 15 percent, those without coverage.
– Vice President Al Gore, 2000- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Divided Welfare StateThe Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States, pp. 175 - 178Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002