My guest for the latest episode is Christy Ford Chapin, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Christy wrote *Ensuring America's Health: The Public Creation of the Corporate Health Care System*, which covers in enormous detail the historical origins of the US Health Insurance system. The central thesis of the book is that the American Medical Association was the linchpin player in warding off alternative payment systems for healthcare in the US. It's a fascinating idea and also serves as an excellent excuse to tour the origins of our system today. 

We cover much more including how hard it is to categorize the AMA's political stance in today's language, the variety of alternative systems in the early 20th century, how fraternal associations were the original insurers, whether the political diversity of the US was really to blame, whether Medicare would have been passed if JFK hadn't been assassinated and when the first worries about the cost of healthcare started to emerge.

Christy's homepage: https://history.umbc.edu/facultystaff/full-time/christy-ford-chapin/

Show notes:
https://notunreasonable.com/2022/01/10/christy-ford-chapin-on-the-history-of-health-insurance-in-america/
youtube: https://youtu.be/WlnYHVFwKhM

Twitter: @davecwright
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