Badge of Infamy is a science-fiction novel by Lester Del Ray, published as half of an Ace Double in 1973, with the other half being another work by Lester Del Ray, The Sky is Falling. It was first published as a novel in 1963, and as a short story in 1957. Although Lester Del Ray was a very active writer in science-fiction, this Ace Double is the only volume by him.
Whereas the other side of the Ace Double, The Sky is Falling, is a fantasy story that begins en media res in a literal fever dream, "Badge of Infamy" is a near-future science-fiction story set in the Solar System, with Mars only tenuously colonized, and describes realistic social and political pressures. The book, indeed, begins with an in-depth description of the dangers of socialized medicine, more or less, as the government of Earth is taken over by "The Medical Lobby" and "The Space Lobby", two large governmental-industrial complexes that now control the Earth and Mars. And also, for that matter, this:
"It took a worldwide plague to turn the tide. The plague begin in old China; anything could start there, with more than a billion people huddled in one area...It might have been a laboratory mutation, but nobody could ever prove it."
So we are all on ground we can understand here.
The protagonist of the story, Daniel Feldman, is a "pariah" who was a Medical Doctor before running afoul of the Medical Lobby for performing a life-saving surgery without authorization. Having no other recourse, he flies to Mars on the equivalent of a tramp steamship, and tries to start a life on Mars...all while being pursued by his vengeful ex-wife, who is a representative of the Medical Lobby. He falls in with the local settlers, who resent the official powers but can't do much about it. He also begins investigating a mysterious disease, which will bring the simmering conflict to a head.
As mentioned, in contrast to the reverse novel, this is all told with social and political realism, and even the research into the disease is described with plausible detail (it involves molecular chirality, which differs between Mars and Earth). Or at least the social and scientific explanation of space travel is realistic within the confines of a 120 page Ace science-fiction novel, there are obviously shortcuts taken, and the usual amount of melodrama and captivities. So this story, while nothing dramatic, is a well-crafted planetery opera story, and together with the other side, shows Lester Del Ray's range as a science-fiction creator.