{"product_id":"the-shadow-welfare-state-1","title":"The Shadow Welfare State","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhy, in the recent campaigns for universal health care, did organized labor maintain its support of employer-mandated insurance? Did labor's weakened condition prevent it from endorsing national health insurance? Marie Gottschalk demonstrates here that the unions' surprising stance was a consequence of the peculiarly private nature of social policy in the United States. Her book combines a much-needed account of labor's important role in determining health care policy with a bold and incisive analysis of the American welfare state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGottschalk stresses that, in the United States, the social welfare system is anchored in the private sector but backed by government policy. As a result, the private sector is a key political battlefield where business, labor, the state, and employees hotly contest matters such as health care. She maintains that the shadow welfare state of job-based benefits shaped the manner in which labor defined its policy interests and strategies. As evidence, Gottschalk examines the influence of the Taft-Hartley health and welfare funds, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (E.R.I.S.A.), and experience-rated health insurance, showing how they constrained labor from supporting universal health care.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLabor, Gottschalk asserts, missed an important opportunity to develop a broader progressive agenda. She challenges the movement to establish a position on health care that addresses the growing ranks of Americans without insurance, the restructuring of the U.S. economy, and the political travails of the unions themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Marie Gottschalk","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53616518463868,"sku":"9780801486487","price":31.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0251\/4980\/0541\/files\/9780801486487_1a8ee9e7-7270-46f6-85ed-47fd7209e861.jpg?v=1725625037","url":"https:\/\/combined-academic.myshopify.com\/products\/the-shadow-welfare-state-1","provider":"Combined Academic Publishers - Mare Nostrum Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}