The New American Caste System

Forty-million Americans have no health insurance. Millions more are one pink slip away from losing coverage. The reasons are as diverse as the people themselves. But what is clear is that the current healthcare system leaves everyone at risk and it doesn't take much to be pushed over the edge.

In a new book, authors Susan Starr Sered and Rushika Fernadapulle argue the link between health insurance and employment is creating a new caste of the ill, infirm, and marginally-employed. Americans can slide with frightening ease from insured to uninsured, and the consequences, they say, can be devastating.

Hear a conversation about the new faces of the uninsured in America.

Guests:

Susan Starr Sered, medical anthropologist, senior research associate at The Center for Women's Health and Human Rights at Suffolk University, and co-author of "Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity";

Dr Rushika Fernandopulle, internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, faculty member at The Harvard Medical School, and co-author of "Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity."