Jacob Hacker

Polls show that health care ranks near the top of voters’ concerns, especially among Democrats. And for those who say “the economy” is the top issue, health care is usually a major part of their financial worries.

And yet, voters must be awfully confused about where the Democrats stand on health care. On the one hand, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton say they want to insure everyone -- and in much the same way. On the other hand, more

"Socialized medicine" is the bogeyman that just won't die. The epithet has been hurled at every national health plan since the New Deal -- even Medicare, which critics warned would strip Americans of their freedom.

And now it's back. Republicans from President Bush on down have invoked the specter of socialism in denouncing Democrats' attempts to expand publicly funded health insurance for children. Erstwhile GOP presidential contenders Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney lambasted the health plans of the leading Democratic candidates… more

With the March 4 primaries delivering finality on one side of the partisan divide and uncertainty on the other, it’s a good time to take stock of where the candidates are on health care. For now, most attention has centered on the scrap between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over an “individual mandate” requiring everyone to have health insurance. But this fight will look like a college seminar discussion compared with the take-no-prisoners battle that’s likely to emerge between John… more

Arguments Mount for a National Healthcare System (Christian Science Monitor)

...In the current campaign season, Senator McCain calls for dozens of reforms to bring down costs and make expenditures more effective in health results. And he states, "we can and must provide access to healthcare for all our citizens." His proposals, though, don't fully embrace the uninsured.

Shannon Brownlee, a senior fellow at the centrist New America Foundation, charges that McCain is "so wedded to the free market that he… more

As the primary fight between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama reaches fever pitch, the domestic policy battle has boiled down to a single technical phrase: "individual mandate."

Clinton's healthcare plan includes such a mandate, requiring that everyone obtain health coverage. Obama's does not (though he does require that children get coverage). This difference, Clinton is insisting, is reason enough for anyone who wants universal coverage to support her. As Clinton argued in last Thursday's debate: "If you do not have… more

Despite the sustained economic growth of recent years, Americans are increasingly concerned with economic security. Even before economists began reporting signs of recession, skyrocketing health care costs, faltering pensions, and burgeoning inequality frayed the fabric of the American social contract. America's social contract is an evolving, complex web of legal and informal relationships between households, employers, government, and civil society that extends beyond particular federal programs. Now is the time to strike a new bargain between these sectors, rethinking the… more

Slate Magazine examines the term socialized medicine. This label is known to have slain past health care proposals, and it was used most recently by 2008 GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani to denounce Democratic candidates' plans to fix the healthcare system. The following is an excerpt from "Who's Afraid of Socialized Medicine?":

... In 1994 the term socialized medicine was heard less often than in previous battles. One of the few who used it was Clinton, when he donned Truman's mantle… more

Many Americans appear to be doing fine. They’ve got nice cars. They’ve got good jobs. They’ve got families. But they also have an abysmal savings profile and mountains of debt. The slightest disruption — a job loss or health incident — can and does destroy the perceived image of American middle class harmony. In “The Great Risk Shift,” author Jacob Hacker details how beneath the shiny hardwood flooring of America’s middle class… more

Health reform is back on the agenda, and not a moment too soon. U.S. health financing is a costly mess that is putting more and more Americans and their employers at risk. Yet nothing guarantees that the burgeoning debate over healthcare will end differently from past debates. The U.S. has witnessed epic healthcare battles roughly once every 15 years -- most recently the Clinton plan of the early 1990s. Yet with the exception of the passage of Medicare and Medicaid… more

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Jacob Hacker, and I am a professor of political science at Yale University. I thank the committee for the honor of speaking today about the economic condition of the American middle class.

Without mincing words, that condition can be described as “serious and unstable.” Increasingly, middle-class Americans find themselves on a shaky financial tightrope, without an adequate safety net if they lose their footing.

A major cause of this precariousness… more