Single Payer Healthcare Reform: Grassroots Mobilization and the Turn Against Establishment Politics in the Medicare for All Movement

by Lindy S.F. Hern

Overview

The recent rise of “Medicare for All” in American political discourse was many years in the making. Behind this rise is a movement composed of grassroots activists and organizations that have been working for more than three decades to achieve the goal of establishing a single-payer healthcare system in the United States. In the past decade, the Single Payer Movement has grown and garnered more public and political support than ever before. This relative success cannot be attributed to any one political figure or political era. The story of how this happened, and how it is tied to a turn against establishment politics on both the left and right, as well as the rise of outsider politicians such as Senator Bernie Sanders, takes place during the Clinton, G.W. Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. During each of these eras, activists experienced shifting opportunities that they interpreted through the telling of stories. These narratives of opportunity encouraged participationin particular forms of grassroots mobilization, which then affected the outcome of each era. This has had lasting effects on the development of healthcare policy in the United States. In this book, Hern conducts a political ethnographic analysis in which she uses historical records, interviews, and participant observation to tell the story of the Single Payer Movement, establish the lessons that can be learned from this history, and develop a framework—the Environment of Opportunity Model—that involves a holistic understanding of social movement activity through the analysis of narrative practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030427634
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	06/10/2020
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	301
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lindy S.F. Hern is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii, USA. In addition to studying the Single Payer Movement, Lindy has conducted projects on student retention, community responses to natural disaster, and roller derby. Lindy is a scholar-activist, primarily through her work for progressive health care reform.

Table of Contents

1. A Single Prayer for Single Payer: Opportunity and Narrative Practice in the Single Payer Movement.- 2. "First they Ignore You": The Clinton Era of Healthcare Reform.- 3. "Newtered": The Contract with America Era.- 4. American Sickos: The Rise of Digital Mobilization During the G.W Bush Administration.- 5. Challenging "Politics as Usual": The Obama Era of Healthcare Reform.- 6. "War with the Whitehouse": Redefining the Enemy During the ACA Era.- Chapter 7. Narratives of Hope and Resistance During the Anti-Establishment Era.- 8. Lessons Learned in the Movement for Single Payer.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In this passionate and timely study, Lindy Hern brings together decades of personal involvement in the campaign for national health insurance with a scholar’s immersion in social movement theory. This work should be read by all interested in the history of the campaign for Medicare for All, and by all looking to understand movements for social change.”

—Gerald Friedman, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

“To date, no one has taken on the monumental task of documenting the healthcare justice movement in a thorough, comprehensive way. Yet Hern not only does so in her book, she also participates in the movement for single-payer, working for Medicare for All coverage for every person. Hern demonstrates her wide breadth of knowledge in her well-researched and well written book. Never before has the single-payer community of activists had such a rich accounting of the people who are driving the movement ever closer to theday when every person in America has access to truly high quality care without financial barriers.”

—Donna Smith, Advisory Board Chair and former Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, former National Organizer for National Nurses United, and star of the Michael Moore film SiCKO

“Single-payer health care was kept on the nation’s agenda for decades by the organizing and the protests of thousands of dedicated citizen-activists. Lindy Hern’s inspiring analysis of the making of grass-roots history provides us with a democratic vision of America to last through troubled times.”

—Clarence Y. H. Lo, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri, USA, and author of Small Property Versus Big Government: Social Origins of the Property Tax Revolt