In his review of John E. Murray’s Origins of American Health Insurance: A History of Industrial Sickness Funds, George C. Leef writes:
Murray points to an important subtext in the Progressive case. One reason Bismarck had worked so hard for his system of social insurance in Germany was to make people feel dependent on the state. Bismarck said, “If the worker must pay, the effect on him is lost” because he would then see that he had himself earned the money to pay for the benefits. Seemingly “free” sickness pay would, however, make workers grateful to government. The Progressive reformers had similar motivations. Their entire program would be easier to implement if people felt that they had to look to the government for security.
For a more detailed description of this, see page 245 of Murray’s book on-line here.
