Universal Health Coverage—America’s Longest Battle

In 1917, U.S. opponents of universal health insurance said that such a program—which existed in Germany—would give the Kaiser a foothold in California. Later, they said that it would be a domino in the fall of America to communism. As medical care became more expensive and lucrative, the American Medical Association came to oppose universal coverage. Jill Lepore, a staff writer and a historian at Harvard University, tells David Remnick why liberals can’t win this century-long battle unless they change their tune.