Kennedycare. Fifty years before Obamacare, JFK had his own health care debacle.

[DonViejo]

Kennedycare

Fifty years before Obamacare, JFK had his own health care debacle.

By John Dickerson

In the spring of 1962, President John F. Kennedy launched a bold effort to provide health care for the aged—later to be known as Medicare. It culminated in a nationally televised presidential address from Madison Square Garden, carried on the three television networks. It was a flop. The legislation foundered amid charges that it was an attempt to socialize medicine and a threat to individual liberty—the same charges President Obama encountered over the Affordable Care Act five decades later.

While Obama crosses his fingers and waits for healthcare.gov to flicker to life, he can at least comfort himself knowing that he has already done more to reform the health care system than JFK, a president with a vigorous reputation and vibrant legacy. The Gallup poll reports that 74 percent of the country believe John F. Kennedy will go down in history as an outstanding or above-average president, a more positive review than any other post-World War II president receives.

But the story of Kennedy’s health care failure is not just about the enduring difficulty of addressing such a thorny issue. It is about how even an energetic and determined chief executive can be constrained by the limitations of the office. Kennedy's story of botched congressional relations, the limits of public persuasion, and the rise of a grassroots opposition that can match the power of the bully pulpit foreshadows many of the same problems President Obama faces today.

Kennedy took office with a grand new vision for the presidency. In September 1960, before his narrow victory over Richard Nixon, the then-senator read the first of several memos he had requested from political scientist Richard Neustadt. The Columbia professor had just published his seminal work Presidential Power, which offered a new theory on how a president, limited by the Constitution, can still succeed through personal persuasion, backroom maneuvering, and public prestige. Kennedy was in a hurry to put its thinking into action. By using the right formula, he could achieve the greatness he craved. Days before taking the oath, he outlined his approach to the National Press Club. Eisenhower had a "detached, limited concept of the presidency," he said. The 1960s required a president to "place himself in the very thick of the fight ... prepared to exercise the fullest powers of his office ... to ensure enactment of that legislation—even when conflict is the result."

full article
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/11/john_f_kennedy_s_health_care_failure_jfk_and_barack_obama_s_tough_fights.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content

[vinny9698]

1. Founding fathers also had Adams Care

An Act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen - Wikipedia, the free ...
en.wikipedia.org/.../An_Act_for_the_relief_of_sick_and_disabled_seam...‎
An Act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen was passed by the 5th Congress. It was signed by President John Adams on July 16, 1798

[Octafish]

2. Reagan worked against JFK...

Operation COFFEECUP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8141205