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Private or Public Insurance? The Institutional History of Health Care in the United States and the United Kingdom

The primary question at issue in this paper is the following: given the similarities between the two countries with regard to welfare state institutions, why have the United States and the United Kingdom diverged on the issue of health care? Drawing on sociological institutionalism, a branch of the new institutionalist paradigm, this paper provides an answer to this question: during the formative years of the health care stories in the two countries, variations in institutional and cultural conditions produced contrasting policy outcomes. More specifically, this paper discusses how the combination of institutions (political, labor, and medical) and culture led to private insurance in the United States and public insurance in the United Kingdom. Of course, this paper has implications for several areas of scholarship, as well as for current policy debates on a wide range of issues.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-1815
Date01 December 2010
CreatorsAbel, Karin M.
PublisherDigitalCommons@USU
Source SetsUtah State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Graduate Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu).

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