Why didn't FDR as part of his New Deal establish some kind of health care plan, for that matter,

[SammyWinstonJack]

why didn't Truman? In 1948 in the UK under Clement Atlle's Labour government, NHS was established. Why not here, I wonder?

[Pyrzqxgl]

1. Truman was up against a GOP do nothing Congress!

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. I see, well I was just wondering. Thanks for the reply.

[Alexander]

4. Not much changes in 60 years, does it?

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. Congress managed to give themselves an affordable health care plan but not us.

x(

[Alexander]

46. Just like they approve pay increases without increasing the minimum wage.

[ingac70]

3. Truman tried...

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

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. Thank you for the link.

[EconomicLiberal]

6. Truman tried with the Fair Deal.

He had a notoriously uncooperative, do-nothing Congress that ultimately killed his efforts.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. So I have learned in the replies. Bummer!

[EconomicLiberal]

13. LBJ has gotten closer than any president has gotten since.

Barack Obama really has a chance to establish a legacy if he gets a successful universal health insurance plan passed.

[EconomicLiberal]

10. dp

double post

[SoCalDem]

8. Truman's plan was quite comprehensive, but his congress bucked him

and Korea got in the mix too..

and remember.. health care was quite affordable back then, and many more people were rural than these days.Home remedies were very much the norm for many people..


http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trumanlibrary.org%2Fanniversaries%2Fhealthprogram.htm&ei=qh0OSZunHZnMsAO-2bWgDw&usg=AFQjCNFgwPOB2zxYzq_tPTxqWEg-Kd-xLw&sig2=fZ_HIEDS6XdRbcFwM7UfCw

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." One of the chief aims of President Truman's plan was to insure that all communities, regardless of their size or income level, had access to doctors and hospitals. The statistics in Harry S. Truman's speech demonstrated the urgent need for such measures: "About 1,200 counties, 40 percent of the total in the country, with some 15,000,000 people, have either no local hospital, or none that meets even the minimum standards of national professional associations. "

President Truman's plan was to improve the state of health care in the United States by addressing five seperate issues. The first issue was the lack of doctors, dentists, nurses, and other health professionals in many rural or otherwise lower-income areas of the United States. Harry S. Truman saw that "the earning capacity of the people in some communities makes it difficult if not impossible for doctors who practice there to make a living." He proposed to attract doctors to the areas that needed them with federal funding. The second problem that Truman aimed to correct was the lack of quality hospitals in rural and lower-income counties. President Truman proposed to provide government funds for the construction of new hospitals accross the country. To insure only quality hospitals were built, the plan also called for the creation of national standards for hospitals and other health centers. Harry S. Truman's third iniative was closely tied to the first two. It called for a board of doctors and public officials to be created. This board would create standards for hospitals and ensure that new hospitals met these standards. The board would also be responsible for directing federal funds into medical research.

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. During his Presidency, the not-for-profit health insurance fund Blue Shield-Blue Cross grew from 28 million policies to over 61 million.** When on July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B.Johnson signed Medicare into law at the Harry S. Truman library, he said that it "all started really with the man from Independence".**

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. Health care was affordable right up until Nixon's HMO act of 1973, right?

[SoCalDem]

15. Pretty much.. I remember that many hospitals were run by

religious orders and were kind of non-profits..and a doctor giving you a prescription did not send you running in fear to get a loan..

You could get a same-day appointment and could even talk to the actual doctor on the phone too:)

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. Those were the day, eh? Greedy for profit health insurance companies need to be shut out!

Or regulated. Or something!

[Liberal In Texas]

22. I remember the family doctor making house calls.

And it didn't cost next months mortgage payment.

[SoCalDem]

25. We lived next door to our doctor in NM.. talk about a house call

:rofl:

[Liberal In Texas]

29. Oooh, that was handy. I remember our doc had a new Chrysler Imperial

(or something very similar, I was pretty young) so he wasn't exactly poor. And he wore a suit and tie and carried a black bag. Just like you see in old movies.

[SoCalDem]

30. John treated our kids many times in a swim suit

he wife was a former ER nurse.. We had it "Made in the shade" :)

[alfredo]

31. House calls, they used to come to the house to see you.

[OKNancy]

11. They probably should have, but then again, I remember

that my parents didn't have insurance but could afford to pay the $10.00 for Doctor visits out of their pocket. Even as late as 1982, I had insurance, but I was denied for "previous condition". My hospital bill for back surgery was $3000.00 I was able to pay it out monthly for 12 months.

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. Nixon took 'care' of affordable health care with his HMO act of 1973 it would seem.

[Hidden Stillness]

16. It Was Part of Original Social Security--Killed by Republicans

Roosevelt, and others of the Administration such as Francis Perkins, Harry Hopkins, Henry Wallace, Arthur Altmeyer, etc., fought very hard against Republicans in Congress who fought--and threatened to kill--Social Security, every step of the way. Even though Republicans were the minority, they were as organized and obstructionist then as now, and fought Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, everything, every time. Early on, Social Security did actually have universal health care as part of the legislation; Republicans then went on a huge obstructionist campaign, with "Socialist" propaganda, lobbying from the AMA, by then against it, and insurance corporations, threatening to kill the entire Social Security bill, and never allow any of it to pass, ever. To save the rest of Social Security (during the Depression, after all, when all this was even more urgent), the universal health care coverage was dropped, with the hope that it would be gotten back to and passed within the next few years. Obstructionist Republicans killed it, from then on to now. This is all very well told in a book called, "The Battle for Social Security--From FDR's Vision to Bush's Gamble," by Nancy J. Altman. Truman also tried over and over to pass universal health care, and never could.

[SammyWinstonJack]

19. Glad Social Security was saved. Thanks for the detailed explanation!

[pnwmom]

18. Health care in FDR's days was extremely low tech compared to now,

and drug costs were hardly anything. Doctors didn't have to spend a fortune to go to medical school and also didn't expect to get rich off their labor. It was a different, less expensive -- and less long-lived -- time.

[SammyWinstonJack]

20. Well I was just wondering since the UK established NHS in 1948 why we didn't as well. Now I know.

[Oregone]

21. Truman had a great Health Care plan...

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

It just didn't happen, with Congress and all...

But this brings up a point...Truman put it in the Democratic platform and pushed for it in 1945...and it never happen. Why is it everyone thinks its going to happen in just a few short years at this point? The for-profit health care industry is more in controlled and entrenched now than ever. Yes, in 8 years I still feel UHC is not going to be available in the US.

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. So I was wondering the same thing, reading through the replies.

The health insurance corps are much more entrenched now then ever before. So as you say, what will change?

[Oregone]

32. Personally, I don't think enough will change that things will not revert back...

But perhaps the populace will be pacified enough in the meantime. Sorry to be so pessimistic.

Obama makes Truman look like a true Marxist. If America couldn't get anything done then, how can they now when they are to the right of center as a whole.

This is a big reason why I left. I don't have to worry ever time I get into a car that a wreck will destroy my life with medical bills. I didn't think that would ever change

[SammyWinstonJack]

33. I don't think you are being pessimistic at all. I actually agree with you.

Which completely bums me out. x( When there are 4 health insurance lobbyists to 1 congress critter, what change do we have?

[Posteritatis]

23. Health care costs were only against the roof under FDR, not somewhere through and above it (nt)

[Iterate]

24. Hospitals and medical practices were segregated.

Teddy Roosevelt first proposed it in his administration and the cause was picked up and defeated numerous times.

Segregation was the root cause for its defeat in the post-war years as southern Democrats knew that it would lead to integration of the hospitals, as it eventually did. Remember that even barber shops were segregated then. The AMA led the opposition long before the health insurance industry and big pharma became a factors, but they couldn't have done it by themselves, even with all their money and lectures to patients.

The red-baiting, anti- new deal "socialist" charge was tagged to it at that time. "Peasant medicine" it was called.

In fact, in 1961 Ronald Reagan was first enlisted into right-wing elective politics as a spokesman for the AMA in opposition to Medicare ("Operation Coffeecup") by a group of southern California doctors who had a notably racist attitude. It's from the time that Palin recently took her Reagan quote, and long-time Repubs would not have missed the implication.

[SoCalDem]

26. well.. we're ALL peasants now, aren't we

We NEED some "peasant health care"...:)

[Iterate]

34. Operation Coffee Cup was pretty interesting.

I found this from Huffington...

""Operation Coffeecup": Reagan, the AMA, And the First 'Viral Marketing' Campaign ... Against Medicare"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/operation-coffeecup-r_b_45444.html

I remember vaguely the story of how Reagan was enlisted in the cause and that it was a telling story, but I can't for the life of me remember the details or where I ran across it. Seems to me it was a friend of his inlaws (Nancy)???, whatever, who was an MD and involved in the AMA and spent years bending his ear until finally putting him in contact with this Fishbein character.

Also, Paul Krugman has some discussion of the history of health care in "Conscience of a Liberal"

Maybe someday we can get past this revisionist history of Reagan and begin to see what a stealthy racist he was.

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. Wow!

"Peasant medicine" :wow: Damn Reagan -- AGAIN! :mad:

[hootinholler]

35. I thought FDR tried and lost?

:shrug:

I can't remember where I got that from. Interesting question.

-Hoot

[SammyWinstonJack]

38. Apparently he did as did Truman. The replies in this thread confirm that.

[book_worm]

39. Nope, it was too extreme for him, but he did finally get old age insurance, social security.

[depakid]

36. Basically, the South screwed whole the nation over- as it usually does

Racists in the Southern strates derailed Truman's health care plan because they feared integrated hospitals and clinics.

[SammyWinstonJack]

41. Thanks for your reply.

[depakid]

42. Well, that's the truth

After watching the Bush administration and the Southern Republicans leader in Congress, you wouldn't think the notion the south repeatedly screwing the rest of the nation would be very controversial.

[SammyWinstonJack]

43. Oh I didn't say it wasn't. I believe you .

[Thothmes]

45. Without the Democrats

in the South, Roosevelt would not have gotten the New Deal passed in Congress.

[book_worm]

37. Why don't you read some books on FDR and Truman and maybe you'll find out.

[SammyWinstonJack]

40. Thank you.

:silly:

[old mark]

44. FDR was able to get the Social Security passed, but

healthcare has been a fight since after the Civil War.

Socialism, ya know....

mark

[SammyWinstonJack]

47. Well I have learned so much and I thank everyone for their reply.

I was just wondering why we couldn't do what the UK did, in establishing a National Health Service, after WW II. :shrug: Now I know why.