Healthcare history: How the patchwork coverage came to be

Workers swarmed through Henry J. Kaiser's Richmond, Calif., shipyard in World War II, building 747 ships for the Navy. The war "had siphoned off the most hardy specimens," a newspaper reported, so Kaiser was left with many workers too young, old or infirm to be drafted.

By Bob Rosenblatt, Special to the Los Angeles Times

February 27, 2012