Democratizing Health Care: Welfare State Building in Korea and Thailand (Asia Today) - Tapa dura

"The detailed history that Nam provides is well done and fruitfully extends the existing literature. ... Nam's book represents an important contribution to the emerging literature on the welfare state in the industrializing world. It advances new concepts and sparks interesting debates." (Joseph Harris, Governance, Vol. 31 (1), January, 2018)

This book explores significant developments of the welfare state in the context of milestone health insurance reforms in two important Asian democracies, Korea and Thailand. The author argues that the changes in health policy, which introduced universal health coverage in Thailand and a single-payer fund in Korea, established greater redistribution in health spending and improved equity in access to health care. In privileging universality and solidarity, the reforms defied patterns of retrenchment prevailing in other parts of the world. The book traces the rise of new progressive welfare actors in these countries who championed citizens' rights to equitable health care, mobilized voter support, and pressured politicians to legislate policy change. Demonstrating that the actors developed their animating beliefs and political capacity as a result of their prior experiences as grassroots democracy activists, the book makes a valuable contribution to understanding the legacy of democracy movements in the production of new social policies.