Is Obamacare nothing more than alast gasp of the insurance-company model before the inevitableembrace of single-payer? (Photo: Shutterstock)

Democrats won big in the midterms by promising to protectthe Affordable Care Act, but they shouldn't celebrate just yet.That, at least, is the implication of “Ensuring America's Health:The Public Creation of the Corporate Health Care System,” whichleads my list of interesting reads this year. This history byChristy Ford Chapin asks and answers a vexing question: Why doesthe U.S., almost alone among developed nations, have such aninefficient, byzantine health-care system that charges exorbitantrates for ever-diminishing coverage?

Chapin avoids the usual simplistic explanations, exploring thedeep historical roots of the current impasse. She convincinglyshows that the U.S.'s predicament is born of politics, not market forces. This has created acurious hybrid system that has entangled public and private powerin ways that work at cross purposes.

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