President Truman proposes a national health insurance fund...

[slipslidingaway]

And 60 years later...

:(

http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/history.htm

"President Truman offers national health program plan, proposing a single system that would include all of American society."


http://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/healthprogram.htm

"On November 19, 1945, only 7 months into his presidency, Harry S. Truman gave a speech to the United States Congress proposing a new national health care program. In his speech, Truman argued that the federal government should play a role in health care, saying "The health of American children, like their education, should be recognized as a definite public responsibility."

...President Truman's plan was to improve the state of health care in the United States by addressing five seperate issues.

...The most controversial aspect of the plan was the proposed national health insurance plan. In the November 19th address, President Truman called for the creation of a national health insurance fund, to be run by the federal government. This fund would be open to all Americans, but would remain optional. Participants would pay monthly fees into the plan, which would cover the cost of any and all medical expenses that arose in a time of need. The government would pay for the cost of services rendered by any doctor who chose to join the program. In addition, the insurance plan would give a cash balance to the policy holder to replace wages lost due to illness or injury.

Harry S. Truman's health proposals finally came to Congress in the form of a Social Security expansion bill, co-sponsored in Congress by Democratic senators Robert Wagner (N.Y.) and James Murray (Mont.), along with Representative John Dingell (D.-Mich). For this reason, the bill was known popularly as the W-M-D bill. The American Medical Association (AMA) launched a spirited attack against the bill, capitalizing on fears of Communism in the public mind. The AMA characterized the bill as "socalized medicine", and in a forerunner to the rhetoric of the McCarthy era, called Truman White House staffers "followers of the Moscow party line".* Organized labor, the main public advocate of the bill, had lost much of it's goodwill from the American people in a series of unpopular strikes. Following the outbreak of the Korean War, President Truman was finally forced to abandon the W-M-D Bill. Although Harry S. Truman was not able to create the health program he desired, he was sucessful in publicizing the issue of health care in America..."

[babylonsister]

1. Ahh, that's why Clinton keeps bringing him up. Thanks. And

as I recall, when it's not about war, or gays, or abortion, it's about healthcare in election cycles. This is the cycle; I can be optimistic that something will change.

[slipslidingaway]

4. Except Truman did not give for profit companies a seat at the

table, it would have been similar to a single payer system.

[Common Sense Party]

2. "but would remain optional"

No mandates back then.

[lurky]

3. Single payer.

The whole concept of mandates doesn't really apply when you're not trying to prop up the insurance industry.

[slipslidingaway]

5. Back then the for profit health insurance companies did not play

as large a role. With the rise of the for profit companies in the past 60 years "optional" is no longer an option as it would not spread the risk. The government would be left paying for the most needy and the private insurance companies would collect premiums from those who do not use the system as much.

I do not favor leaving the for profit companies in the mix and having a mandate, the Clinton/Edwards plan, although I would be for a single payer not for profit system.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=50402

In depth discussion of the Kucinich NOT FOR PROFIT plan. If healthcare is important to you or our nation this is a must see discussion. Please pass this along so people will understand the difference between the healthcare systems being offered.

Each part is roughly a half hour.

snips from the first video...

Speaking of the government paying for Medicare and Medicaid which props up insurance company profits by removing two segments of citizens who have high health care needs.

Arnie Arnesen

"We left the insurance company with the youngest, healthiest people and no wonder they are making a profit, because we've taken away the most expensive part of healthcare, which obviously is going to constantly sink us like a stone. Because insurance is about spreading the risk, we don't spread the risk, in fact what we do is prop up the insurance industry. Which is why they are so frightened about changing anything in the way of a system because it is about their profits and their CEO's and not about our healthcare..."

Dennis Kucinich

"For profit insurance companies make money not providing healthcare..."

[Hidden Stillness]

6. This was Originally Supposed to be Part of Social Security

Truman's plan for a National health insurance was not new, but was actually supposed to be an original part of the Social Security Act of 1935; shockingly, it was killed by Republicans threatening to kill the entire bill unless it was dropped. To save Social Security, the health insurance part was dropped, with the intention that it would be fought for again as a separate bill. (The whole story is in a great book called "The Battle for Social Security--From FDR's Vision to Bush's Gamble," by Nancy Altman.) The whole idea was a continuation of the New Deal attitude, that these kinds of coverage were the public's right, and a common good, and to be preferred to welfare-type coverage, which they were not. Truman put it this way: "Public assistance was designed as a backstop, a second line of defense, eventually to be replaced in large measure by social insurance benefits," (page 160). By the way, the AMA, etc. propaganda routine of calling Social Security, National health care, and anything else organized or paid by Government/taxes, "socialism" or even "Communism," was not new here--it went all the way back to the 1930s and the Social Security fight.

[slipslidingaway]

8. Thanks for the reference and I have read that national health

care was also mentioned by Theodore Roosevelt, just looking for more info.

http://www.enotes.com/public-health-encyclopedia/national-health-insurance

"Proposals for a national health insurance system were heard as early as 1912, when President Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party platform (following the example of Germany and other European nations) called for "the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use." Shortly thereafter, the American Association for Labor Legislation (AALL) formed a Committee on Social Insurance comprising prominent members of the American Medical Association (AMA) and others. The committee recommended a compulsory plan covering the majority of workers.

Efforts to enact the AALL plan at the state level failed, largely due to opposition from organized medicine and other conservative elements that considered it a harbinger of radical social change. The AMA initially called the plan the "inauguration of a great social movement" (1917), but rapidly changed course and consistently opposed mandatory health insurance since that time..."


http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijhca/vol3n2/nhi.xml

"President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) did support a health insurance plan. He believed that “no country could be strong whose people were sick and poor” ( 3 , p. 2). However, he too did not feel it was the government's place to mandate reforms. Thus most of the reforms were placed outside the government in the private sector and failed to respond to the need of society.

In 1906, the American Association of Labor Legislation led the campaign for national health insurance. However, their plan came under opposition from several groups including the American Federation of Lead and the private insurance industry. The American Medical Association was one of the only groups to support the measure. ( 3 ).

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 – 1945) made several attempts to create a national health insurance system. In Roosevelt's second attempt, the Wagner Bill (National Health Act of 1939) grew into a strong movement. Although by the time the bill was introduced into Congress, the bill never had Roosevelt's full support. “The movement for national health insurance in the 1930's ran into the declining fortunes of the New Deal and WWII ” ( 3 , p. 5).

After the death of Roosevelt, Truman became president (1945-1953). President Truman believed strongly in a national health insurance program. “The health care issue finally moved into the center arena of national politics and received the unreserved support of an American president” ( 3 , p. 6)..."

[TahitiNut]

7. Actually, John Dingell, Sr., introduced the first national health insurance proposal in 1933.

This was the basis for Truman's proposal. John Dingell, Sr. and Jr. have introduced the proposal in EVERY session of Congress since 1933.

Yes, father and son have represented that district since 1933. John Dingell, Jr., was appointed to his father's office upon his death in 1955 and has been reelected continuously since then.

[slipslidingaway]

9. Interesting and thanks for posting, we've made great progress

since that time.

:sarcasm:


:(

[slipslidingaway]

10. Kick n/t