Studies Conducted at Stanford University on Economics Recently Reported (Why Doesn’t the United States Have National Health Insurance? the Political Role of the American Medical Association): Economics

2026 JUL 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Business Daily -- Investigators discuss new findings in Economics. According to news reporting from Stanford, California, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “This article examines how the American Medical Association (AMA) helped shape the development of the U.S. health insurance system in the critical period after World War II. Working with the political public relations firm Campaigns, Inc., the AMA launched a nationwide campaign to weaken support for national health insurance by framing it as ‘socialized medicine,’ while simultaneously enrolling people in private health insurance plans to shift demand away from a public alternative.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Stanford University, “Drawing on newly assembled archival data, we find that greater exposure to the campaign explains about 20% of the rise in private health insurance enrollment and a comparable decline in public support for a national program. The campaign also appears to have influenced policy making through coordinated messaging, resolutions passed by civic organizations, congressional rhetoric, and political donations.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “These findings suggest that the rise of private health insurance in the United States was not solely due to macroeconomic forces or collective bargaining; rather, it was also enabled by a strategic, interest group-financed effort to shape citizen views and influence policy.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Why Doesn’t the United States Have National Health Insurance? the Political Role of the American Medical Association. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2026. The Quarterly Journal of Economics can be contacted at: Oxford Univ Press Inc, Journals Dept, 2001 Evans Rd, Cary, NC 27513, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Marcella Alsan, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjag024. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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