Abstract
The United States remains the only industrialized nation that does not provide universal health insurance. The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 brings the country closer to its peers, but in its own fashion. This is a far more limited role for government in health care than the health care models in other industrialized nations. Canada, for example, relies on a tax-financed single government insurance plan in each province. The single-payer insurance model, however, allows for primarily private providers. In the national health service of Britain and Sweden, the government’s role is even more extensive, financing health care from a single government insurance program and providing health care services from public clinics and hospitals. By contrast, American policymakers have taken steps to fill in coverage gaps through a dualistic model of private employment-based insurance and public insurance programs for those outside the labor market, namely, the elderly, poor, disabled, and the military. Germany’s statutory national health insurance based in employer and individual mandates perhaps comes closest to the United States.
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Notes
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© 2016 Susan Giaimo
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Giaimo, S. (2016). The United States: An Ambivalent Journey toward Universal Coverage. In: Reforming Health Care in the United States, Germany, and South Africa. Perspectives in Comparative Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137107176_2
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