Theodore Roosevelt made national health insurance one of the major planks of the Progressive party during the 1912 presidential campaign . He lost the election.
Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted national health insurance but, even with his power in the New Deal Congress, he did not dare to tie it to Social Security in 1935 but he did not want to lose the whole program. Harry S. Truman pushed it on a Congress that wouldn't buy it.
While Dwight D. Eisenhower balked at national insurance, he tried to get Congress to support a reinsurance program to buttress private insurers and gain coverage for high-risk patients and the needy.Congress said no, twice .
John F. Kennedy made health care a major issue in his 1960 campaign. He concentrated on what then was called medical care for the aged. He couldn't get it through Congress.
Lyndon B. Johnson did, but even with his legendary legislative skills and the overwhelming Democratic majorities in Congress after the 1964 elections, it took more than a year of hard, sometimes arm-bending persuasion to get Medicare enacted. It was a hard sell with conservative Democrats, not unlike the problem Obama faced with his plan.
Not only for LBJ, but also for Republican Richard M. Nixon, who proposed universal health insurance in 1974, seeking to use employer-based coverage along with federal subsidies so that all Americans would be insured. It was to be done by private insurers, not the government. There was bipartisan support until Watergate intervened. Sounds a little like Obama's plan today.
Today we spend almost twice as much for coverage than any other country with no where near the benifits. Now" Obama Care " as it is called has been proved to be constitutional and the battle begins.
I just wonder how people who call themselves Christian can be so mwae and so against a program designed to provide care to sick men,womwn and children. Why ? I have Insurance and I worry about the health and care of others. I am really not that good of a Christian and that makes me wonder . If I care why don't they? What kind of Christians are they? A new sect I never heard of? My God people,It's health care not free vacations to Hawaii. Don't working people deserve at least that much?
Today I find it hard to to even call or contact family or friends who are against this law. They kind of makes me sick.
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