KCRW Presents Zocalo Public Square
Paul Starr: Will the Healthcare War Ever End?
Princeton sociologist Paul Starr discusses the history of the American fight over healthcare reform and the prospects of ever bringing it to an end.
The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 was supposed to solve our biggest healthcare problems and cement the reputation of President Barack Obama as a great reformer. Instead, the fighting has continued and even, possibly, intensified. Many Republicans have been calling for outright repeal, and even many of the law's supporters now have doubts about it. No other nation has experienced a healthcare debate quite so embittered and polarized. How did an almost universally acknowledged good like healthcare become a source of such titanic strife? And when, if ever, does it end? Princeton sociologist Paul Starr, author of Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform, visits Zócalo to discuss the history of a uniquely American fight and the prospects of ever bringing it to an end. Watch the full video of his talk.
Banner image: Aaron Salcido