Article
Structures of Resentment: On Feeling—and Being—Left Behind by Health Care Reform
Cultural Anthropology
(2019)
Abstract
Described by many as an emotional state rooted in having been treated unfairly, resentment has surged over the past decade. Resentment politics troubled the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, 2010) in the United States. While some people gained access to health insurance through the ACA, others experienced continued exclusion from affordable coverage. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with poor whites from Florida, Rhode Island, and Texas, we show how uninsured individuals talked about and experienced resentment through contradictory tropes of “us versus them,” deservingness, and personal responsibility. We argue that policies based in resentment, occurring on both national and state levels, structured these individuals’ experiences and amplified their resentment sentiments. Through this case study we argue that resentment is more than an emotion: it is also a force that structures policies and their implementation. Resentment policies in turn create the social, political, and economic circumstances that generate resentment feelings.
Disciplines
Publication Date
August, 2019
DOI
10.14506/ca35.2.10
Citation Information
Emily K. Brunson and Jessica Mulligan. "Structures of Resentment: On Feeling—and Being—Left Behind by Health Care Reform" Cultural Anthropology Vol. 35 Iss. 2 (2019) p. 317 - 343 ISSN: 0886-7356 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jessica_mulligan/31/