The Political Economy of State Provided Health Insurance in the Progressive Era: Evidence from California / Dora L. Costa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Costa, Dora L.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w5328.

NBER working paper series no. w5328

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

The Political Economy of State Provided Health Insurance in the Progressive Era

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.

Summary:

I investigate why the United States did not adopt European style health insurance in the 1910s by examining voting determinants on the 1918 referendum on state-provided health insurance in California. I find that although the persuasiveness of interest groups, especially doctors, was an important determinant of the 1918 vote, interest groups alone could not explain the resounding defeat of state-provided health insurance. Voters, I find, were unwilling to pass a costly measure with an unpredictable outcome.

Notes:

Print version record

October 1995.