The struggle over employee benefits: the role of labor in influencing modern health policy.
After organized labor failed to institute national health insurance in the mid-twentieth century, its influence on health care policy diminished even further. This article proposes an alternative interpretation of the development of health care policy in the United States, by examining the association of health policy with the relationships between employers and employees. The social welfare and health insurance systems that resulted were a direct outcome of the pressures brought by organized and unorganized labor movements. The greater dependency created by industrial and demographic changes, conflicts between labor and capital over the political meaning of disease and accidents, and attempts by the political system to mitigate the impending social crisis all helped determine new health policy options.
Rosner
David
D
Center for History and Ethics in Public Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, 722 West 168th Street, Room 934, New York, NY 10032, USA. dr289@columbia.edu
Markowitz
Gerald
G
D004651:Employment / Q000266:history; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000266:history*; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000266:history; D006291:Health Policy / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000266:history; D007750:Labor Unions / Q000266:history*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000266:history; D014481:United States; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000266:history; D017132:Workplace / Q000266:history