What Might Have Been: Earl Warren's Alternative to Employer-Based Health Insurance

Abstract

It is widely assumed that the United States and Canada differ in their health insurance systems because of deep-rooted cultural factors. Moreover, the defeat of government-provided health insurance in the United States is often dated as 1949—when the Truman plan was defeated in Congress. However, California—under Governor Earl Warren—might well have adopted a Canadian-style plan in the mid-1940s, had Warren not made some crucial political misjudgments. If Warren’s proposal had been adopted in California, other states might well have followed. The United States would then have developed a system of state-administered single-payer health insurance plans.