Stories of the Fall 0
Der Spiegel interviews two economists, Angus Deaton and Anne Case, in an attempt to figure out what the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed about health care in the United States.
They are not optimistic.
Here’s a bit:
DER SPIEGEL: Is it possible to identify the point when things started to go wrong in the U.S.?
Deaton: One great question to ask is: Why doesn’t America have a strong federal welfare state with health care like other European countries do? One answer is the issue of race. In the middle of the 20th century, it was the southern senators of the Democratic party who blocked any consideration of publicly funded health care. People don’t like to pay for services that go to people that don’t look like them, especially when they are black.
It’s a tough read, but a worthwhile one.