Beginnings.

Compulsory health insurance began in Germany in 1883 when Chancellor Otto Bismarck introduced it along with other social rights in lieu of granting wider political rights. It was adopted in modified form in Britain through the efforts of David Lloyd George in 1911. But a consciousness of the need for medical relief was slow to develop in the United States. Most American sickness benefits were provided by small immigrant benefit societies and local chapters of fraternal orders and unions. While American workers bought life insurance policies from commercial insurance companies, they spent their money to insure their escaping a pauper's funeral, not to buy better health. Reformers outside government rather than political leaders took the initiative in calling for health insurance measures. The first workmen's compensation law in the country was enacted in Wisconsin on 3 May 1911. By 1915 workmen's compensation laws had been passed by some...