Universal Care: The Force of an Idea

摘要

Gorsky and Sirrs' article in this issue of (p. 334) is an in-depth historical analysis of a first international effort to implement universal health coverage (UHC) in a number of countries, mostly European and North American. As the authors point out, the idea of countrywide health care systems capable of providing necessary services to its populations was born of social justice principles. These principles are espoused by an international workers’ association, although they do so as a reaction to the “red menace,” as the Soviet Union was thought of.