The Institute for the Medical Humanities Graduate Program at UTMB

Graduate Program
Home Page

Institute for the Medical Humanities

Current Students

Alumni

UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

UTMB Enrollment Services

UTMB Combined MD/PhD Degree Program

UTMB Home Page

Alumni

Rebecca B. Lunstroth, J.D., M.A.

Graduated: 2006

Advisor: William J. Winslade, J.D., Ph.D.

Master's Thesis Title:

Employer-Based Health Insurance in the United States from 1920–Present: The Fall of an Empire

Current Position and Address:

Instructor/Sr. Program Development Officer
University of Texas Medical School at Houston
The John P. McGovern, M.D. Center for Health, Humanities, and the Human Spirit
6431 Fannin, JJL 400B
Houston, TX 77030
phone: 713-500-5966
fax: 713-500-5968
email: rebecca.lunstroth@uth.tmc.edu

Summary of Research

The United States is the only industrialized nation that relies almost exclusively on private employers to fund health care. The ability of private employers to fund this burden has been slowly eroding to the point that the system is on the brink of collapse. Without viable alternatives our health care system will begin to fail the people who most rely on it: wage earners who work for private companies. Employer-based health insurance evolved largely outside the political arena and the federal government's involvement has been largely limited. Moreover, traditional insurance is not designed to cover on-going needs and relationships therefore, health insurance instruments are fundamentally flawed. A proposed solution calls for a hybrid of a publicly financed minimum health care package for all citizens supplemented by 3rd-party insurance.