Remedy and reaction : the peculiar American struggle over health care reform / Paul Starr.

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2011], ©2011.

xii, 324 pages ; 25 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-309) and index.

An uneasy victory ; The making of a national impasse ; A window for reform ; Choices and vulnerabilities -- The genealogy of health-care reform. Evolution through defeat ; Progressive health insurance, 1915-1919 ; The New Deal and national health insurance, 1935-1950 ; The growth of the protected public, 1950-1965 ; Stumbling toward comprehensive reform ; Political deadlock, 1969-1980 ; Political reversals, 1981-1990 ; The American path in health insurance -- Frustrated ambitions, liberal and conservative. The shaping of the Clinton Health Plan, 1991-1993 ; A new framework ; Clinton's decisions ; Getting to no, 1994 ; The Democrats' disorder ; The big turnabout ; The collapse of Congressional compromise ; Why no reform? ; Comes the counterrevolution, 1995-2006 ; Gingrich and the end of entitlements ; From bold leaps to baby steps ; A Republican window ; Return to crisis -- Rollercoaster. The rise of a reform consensus, 2006-2008 ; Romney and the Massachusetts model ; Toward minimally invasive reform ; Making 2008 a health-care election ; Prepare to launch ; Breaking through, 2009-2010 ; Health care first ; Bipartisanship in one party ; Reaction and resolve ; Obama and the rollercoaster to reform ; Why health-care reform passed (and climate legislation didn't) ; The Affordable Care Act as public philosophy ; Fairness and equality ; Responsibility and freedom ; Federalism and finance ; Health and the public household ; Reform's uncertain fate ; Political backlash and the courts ; The peculiar struggle.