Professor's book details insurance
07 01 08 - 12:14
UT Economics Professor John Murray did something no one else has, and he's sharing what he found through a book.
Murray published "The Origins of American Health Insurance: A History of Industrial Sickness Funds" in October through Yale University Press.
"Historians that have looked at development of health insurance have concentrated [more] on politics than what actually happened [with] health insurance providers and workers," he said.
It's all because the United States doesn't have a central government health insurance entity, Murray said, and because of it, historic data on health insurance is scattered, making research difficult.
Murray explains in his 336-page book that the beginning of health insurance being associated with employers goes back to the 19th century - more specifically the sickness fund.
Progressive reformers from 1912 to 1919 tried to create a state level health insurance, but there was no support for it.
Murray also said that after researching and compiling the book, he became more sympathetic about why insurance in America failed.
"[The United States] developed differently [than other countries]; we started from a different place," he said. "There are reasons it didn't work out. I became more sympathetic, and I found out why things worked out how they did."
Murray said that one of the reasons it didn't work out was because Americans could not afford health insurance since they were paid so little.
"They couldn't buy insurance and couldn't save money for medical bills," he said.
The progressives had gotten it all wrong, Murray said.
"They thought working class were fools, and they said so," he said. "The belief then filtered into their work."
Murray hopes that his book will interest people who study insurance and "people who want to enlarge the role of the government in health insurance today."
He also hopes that professors will make their students read the book.