The Arguments against a National Health Program: Science or Ideology?

Vicente Navarro

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

One of the most dramatic changes in national health policy debates in this country during the last 15 years has been the shift of focus from discussing the expansion of the federal role in the health sector through a National Health Program (the theme of the 1970s) toward debating and implementing ways and means to reduce that federal role (the theme of the 1980s). As the editor of one of the major U.S. health policy forums wrote in the early 1980s, we have witnessed during these years “the demise of any real constituency of national health insurance” (1). While the use of the word “demise” is hyperbolic, since many groups, including the American Public Health Association (APHA), kept the issue of the need for a National Health Program (NHP) alive, still it was true then and continues to be true now that during the 1980s there has been a deafening legislative silence in this area, not only in our Congressional chambers but also in the main political, academic, and media establishments. Moreover, when some solitary forces such as the APHA have raised their voices in support of a NHP, those voices have been silenced by a huge avalanche of messages and counterarguments (all of them presented, of course, as scientific and reasonable) against the advisability and/or feasibility of such a program.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationWhy the United States Does Not Have a National Health Program
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages11-21
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9781351840675
ISBN (Print)0895031051, 9780415785600
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2019

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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