EP 484: The Freedom to Buy

So, health insurance is in the news. And so is Americans' feelings about it. I got to wondering how we ended up with this terrible health insurance system in the United States. I uncovered a fascinating story about the marketing campaign that sunk Truman's national health insurance program in the 1940s. I also discovered some interesting parallels to popular marketing messages among today's influencers, gurus, and marketers.Today's episode is a little trip through history that will hopefully put some of our current issues in perspective.Footnotes:Gallup's survey data on healthcare"The Lie Factory" by Jill Lepore, in The New YorkerInterview with Leone Baxter in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting"Campaigns, Inc." via the California State Archives"The deprofessionalization of medicine. Causes, effects, and responses." by RR Reed and D Evans"Professional Identity Misformation and Burnout: A Call for Graduate Medical Education to Reject “Provider” by Deborah Ehrlich and Joseph Gravel"White Privilege and Professionalization: A Decolonial and Critical Feminist Perspective on Professional Nursing" by Natalie Stake-Doucet"Why Doesn’t the United States Have National Health Insurance? The Role of the American Medical Association" by Marcella Alsan and Yousra Neberai"Oli London & the Right Wing Grift" by Matt BernsteinFind an essay version of this episode at whatworks.fyi! ★ Support this podcast ★