From Bismarck to Beveridge: Developments and Trends in Social Security Legislation

Abstract

Editor's Note: This profound analysis of the factors involved in the establishment of the first national health insurance system in Germany in the i 88os, was published by Henry E. Sigerist, the great medical historian, in 1943. It appeared in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, volume I 3, no. 4, April 1943, pp. 3 65-3 88, and is reprinted with permission from the Johns Hopkins University Press. This was to be the initial article in a series titled "From Bismarck to Beveridge: Developments and Trends in Social Security Legislation" (hence the ending of the article: [To be continued.]). The series was not continued, but Sigerist did include a brief summary of his analysis of world trends in national health insurance in his book, Landmarks in the History of Hygiene (London: Oxford University Press, 1956, Chapter V). Here he presented his judgment of the crucial factors involved in achieving national health insurance and the reason for its absence in the United States. The validity of Sigerist's thesis has been confirmed by subsequent developments in Canada. These events, as well as Sigerist's discussion of world trends, are presented in Terris, M. "National Health Insurance in the United States: A Drama In Too Many Acts," J. Public Health Policy zo (I999): I3-3 5.