Trapped in America's Safety Net: One Family's Struggle (Chicago Studies in American Politics)

When Andrea Louise Campbell's sister-in-law (who was pregnant at the time) was paralyzed from the chest down after a horrifying automobile accident, the whole family fell down a rabbit hole as they tried to navigate this country's confusing and complicated "means-tested" social support system for the disabled. The author interleaves this story with an account of the history of that system.This is a story that could happen to any one of us. If a professor of public policy at one of our nation's top universities (who studies these matters for a living) was barely able to figure out how to navigate this system, what hope do the rest of us have?

Read this for my college class on the American welfare state. A very well-researched book with lots of statistics and anecdotes to support her thesis, and a quick read as well. Some of the information is kinda repetitive and this probably works better as an academic journal than a book. Nonetheless a great book and absolutely worth reading for anyone interested in America's problematic social safety net.

What has happened since this was written? Difficulty for all Americans to find adequate information about health benefits, public and private programs, insurance, understanding options seems to be getting more challenging.

Absolutely heartbreaking. I tend to lean towards a less involved government but this book makes very compelling arguments about healthcare. I've recommended this to many friends of various political views.

I hope this important book will influence social welfare in the US. While moving as a personal document, it shows more generally the dramatic unfairness and unintentional inhumanity of the patchwork that makes up the US social welfare system. We see how a large segment of US society is forced to remain in poverty in order to get otherwise unavailable (yet still inadequate) benefits. Especially interesting is Campbell's history of how inequality has been part of US social welfare since its inception, due to compromises made to states' rights advocates. Although the book's topic is a solemn one, the writing is so trenchant that this book is a pleasure to read.

Very interesting book. Author understands, both through personal experience and through training, the difference between social welfare and social insurance programs. She points out with great clarity the difficulties with the former - program complexity and very strict eligibility - why the social welfare programs are difficult to administer and have many perverse incentives.

I liked that the author was able to put skin on the stories and discussions around social policy. Sometimes I got lost in the stats weeds, which may speak more to the complicated world of the welfare state and its impact on American society than the writing itself.

I found it an excellent and thorough revelation of our regrettably inadequate health and social service distribution system. It should be required reading for every politician who makes decisions on health care.