"Few domestic issues dominate today's headlines as much as the high cost of health care. Despite this media attention and a litany of election-year debates over health care funding, some 45 million Americans remain without adequate health insurance. Philip Funigiello chronicles the contentious political history behind this state of affairs, from the New Deal to the present.".

"Funigiello unlocks the puzzle of why the United States has never guaranteed its citizens health security comparable to that enjoyed by people of other first-world nations - and he tells what needs to happen for policy reform to take place. Examining specific episodes in the history of health care financing, he highlights the importance of key individuals in the legislative process, the political haggling involved in shaping a bill, the clash of personalities and agendas that determines its fate, and the extent to which American ideas about fairness are reflected in the result."--BOOK JACKET.