Where Did Our Healthcare System Come from Anyway?

Guest: Christy Ford Chapin, Associate Professor of History, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Visiting Scholar, Johns Hopkins University Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act are a shambles, so some in Congress are now searching for a more limited plan to stabilize the individual insurance market, where premiums have risen steeply. Even though the fight over Obamacare is often called a fight over “health care reform,” it’s really more about insurance reform, dictating who should get coverage and what the coverage should look like. But how did health insurance companies end up being the gatekeepers to our medical care in the first place? About 100 years ago, health insurance companies didn’t even exist in America. The story of their rise to prominence helps explain why the battle over health care reform is so intense today.