One Nation, Uninsured offers a comprehensive history of America's failed efforts to establish national health insurance. Jill Quadagno details how powerful stakeholders, initially physicians and later the insurance industry, have consistently opposed reform efforts to keep health care financing out of government hands. The book covers significant battles over health care throughout the twentieth century, including the roles of Medicare, Medicaid, and the impact of corporate interests.
In *Remedy and Reaction*, Paul Starr provides a comprehensive history of the U.S. healthcare system, tracing its development from early attempts at reform to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The book explores why healthcare has become a contentious issue in American politics and how past policies have shaped the current system. Starr examines key events, including the Clinton health plan and Mitt Romney's reforms in Massachusetts, to understand the challenges of achieving universal healthcare in the U.S.
Pierre Proudhon's "What is Property?" is a seminal work of anarchist thought. It presents a radical critique of private property, arguing that it is inherently unjust and leads to social inequality. Proudhon advocates for a society based on mutualism, a form of anarchism that emphasizes cooperation and voluntary association. His work is known for its provocative arguments and its influence on later anarchist and socialist movements. The book's central question, "What is property?" remains a powerful and relevant challenge to conventional notions of ownership.
In 'A Theory of Justice,' John Rawls develops a moral theory of justice as fairness, which is an alternative to utilitarianism. The theory is based on the social contract approach and uses the concept of the original position and the veil of ignorance to derive two principles of justice. The first principle, the greatest equal liberty principle, ensures that each person has an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all. The second principle, which includes the difference principle and the equal opportunity principle, states that social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged and attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. Rawls's theory aims to reconcile liberty and equality in a well-ordered society.
In this ground-breaking book, Katy Milkman reveals a proven path to help readers move from where they are to where they want to be. Drawing on her original research and the work of her world-renowned scientific collaborators, Milkman shares strategic methods for identifying and overcoming common barriers to change, such as impulsivity, procrastination, and forgetfulness. The book offers innovative approaches like 'temptation bundling,' using timely reminders, and creating 'set-it-and-forget-it systems' to make change more achievable. It emphasizes the importance of tailoring solutions to specific roadblocks and using science to stack the deck in favor of successful change.
The Democratic primary has been unexpectedly dominated by a single question: Will you abolish private health insurance?
Wrapped in that question are dozens more. Why, if private health insurance is such a mess, do polls show most Americans want to keep it? What lessons should we take from the failure of past efforts at health reform? What does it mean to say “if you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it?”
Matt Bruenig, the founder of the People’s Policy Project, is firmly in support of true single-payer. No compromise, no chaser. He’s frustrated by those, like me, who try to work around the public’s resistance to disruptive change, who treat past failures and current polls as predictions about the future. And, in turn, I’m often frustrated by Matt’s tendency, mirrored by many on the left, to treat people with similar goals but different theories of reform as villains and shills.
In this podcast, Matt and I hash it out. The questions here are deep ones. When are political constraints real, and when are they invented by the people asserting their existence? If you already believe the political system is broken and corrupt, how can you entrust it to take over American health care? Can you cleave policy from politics? What would the ideal health care system look like, and why?
Book recommendations:
A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
What Is Property? by P. J. Proudhon
The Progressive Assault on Laissez Fair by Barbara H. Fried
Ezra’s recommended reading:
One Nation, Uninsured by Jill Quadagno
Remedy and Reaction by Paul Starr
It's the Institutions, Stupid! by Sven Steinmo, Jon Watts
Want to contact the show? Reach out at ezrakleinshow@vox.com
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The Gray Area with Sean Illing 
