The debate over health care took a new twist this week when the loudest debate turned out to be the one within the Democratic Party. After Senate Democrats made a number of concessions and compromises to centrists regarding the current bill, the debate suddenly became about how much compromise is too much? Is this heavily watered down version of the bill even worth it? So far that’s one thing Democrats cannot agree on.
To get a better understanding of the debate it would be helpful to take a look back at other presidents who have attempted health care reform and failed. Theodore Roosevelt campaigned on the promise of a single payer system, but he did not win that election.
President Truman
One of the most aggressive attempts at health care reform came from President Truman who made it a key part of his presidency. He focused on five key issues regarding health care and based his entire plan on solving these issues.
- Lack of health care professionals (doctors, nurses, dentists, etc) for rural and lower-income communities. Truman wanted federal funds to be used to attract health care professionals to these areas, very similar to funds that have been used to attract teachers into certain communities over the last decade.
- Lack of hospitals in those same communities.
- Creation of national standards for hospitals and other health centers to make sure these hospitals was built.
- Creation of a board made up of doctors and public officials. This board would set a standard for these new hospitals and health centers and ensure that the standards were met and followed.
- A national health insurance plan. This plan was somewhat similar to the current idea of a “public option.” It would have provided a government-run insurance plan that Americans could pay a monthly fee for (optional plan) and in turn the plan would cover the cost of any and all medical expenses that arose. People who took advantage of the plan would also receive a cask balance for lost wages as a result of illness or injury.
The AMA fought the bill and, similar to the rhetoric used against today’s bills, which sit on Capital Hill, they claimed the bill was “socialized medicine” said Truman’s administration were "followers of the Moscow party line." With the obstacles of such rhetoric already standing in the way when the Korean War broke out, Truman was forced to abandon the bill all together.
Though Truman didn’t actually accomplish much in the way of health care reform, he was the first president to shine the light on the need for it. During Truman’s presidency, the not-for-profit health insurance fund Blue Shield-Blue Cross grew from 28 million policies to over 61 million. In one of his addresses regarding health care he said this quote, which is every bit, if not more, true today: “The health of American children, like their education, should be recognized as a definite public responsibility."
President Eisenhower
President Eisenhower helped create the system that is now the most dominant in America, consisting of insurance provided through private employers and private companies, with government subsidies and programs filling in gaps.
Presidents Kennedy and Johnson
President Kennedy (whose brother, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, was one of the most dedicated and committed supporters of health care reform) fought for a government run system for seniors, but failed. It was at the time he faced the AMA, who once again had cried socialism, and said, "Do you think Social Security is socialism?”
Lyndon B. Johnson knew a government-run system would never fly so he never tried. But in 1965 he helped bring about Medicare and Medicaid, two of the biggest accomplishments in the fight for health care to date.
Nixon through Bush
President Nixon worked closely with Ted Kennedy and even though they strongly disagreed on the idea of a single payer system, they were able to find a compromise in the form of subsidies to businesses.
From Carter and Reagan through George H.W. Bush, very little was done in the way of health care. Reagan did expand benefits to Medicare, but much of those were overturned in Congress under George H. W. Bush.
President Clinton
One of the biggest attempts at health care reform since the days of President Truman came during the Clinton administration. But First Lady Hillary Clinton’s refusal to compromise on many aspects on the huge overhaul of health care caused the highly criticized plan to fail.
It’s strange to look back and see so many of the same issues being brought up so many years later. What would President Truman think if he saw the same rhetoric being thrown at the current president in 2009? Much of the problems in the past have been related to marketing. Supporters of health care reform have been unable to quiet the false claims of socialism, and Americans than and now have been unable to see the irony of calling a government run health care system “socialism” yet not accusing the public school system, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid of the same thing.
What President Obama needs to take from attempts in the past is that he needs to fight and needs to remain steadfast, while Congress needs to truly examine whether killing the bill because of too many compromises is worth another failure. Looking back it can also be said that giving in to compromise hasn’t taken us all that far either.
