TY  - JOUR
AU  - Costa,Dora L.
TI  - The Political Economy of State Provided Health Insurance in the Progressive Era: Evidence from California
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5328
PY  - 1995
Y2  - October 1995
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5328
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5328.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Dora Costa
Bunche Hall 9272
Department of Economics
UCLA
Box 951477
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1477
Tel: (310) 825-4249
Fax: (310) 825-9528
E-Mail: costa@econ.ucla.edu
AB  - I investigate why the United States did not adopt European style health insurance in the 1910s by examining voting determinants on the 1918 referendum on state-provided health insurance in California.  I find that although the persuasiveness of interest groups, especially doctors, was an important determinant of the 1918 vote, interest groups alone could not explain the resounding defeat of state-provided health insurance.  Voters, I find, were unwilling to pass a costly measure with an unpredictable outcome.
ER  -