Looking at the (Rough) History of Health Reform

Looking at the (Rough) History of Health Reform in Politics and Legislation

Yesterday there was a really great piece in the Washington Post looking at the history of health reform, and well, how incredibly hard it is to get done.

In fact, American lawmakers and presidents have been trying to push through some kind of reform since 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt campaigned for national health insurance. Roosevelt lost that election to Woodrow Wilson.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt also tried to pass a national health insurance bill in the 1930s with the New Deal, but failed.

President Harry Truman tried in the 1940s, President John F. Kennedy tried to overhaul health benefits for Social Security recipients in the 1960s, President Richard Nixon offered a deal to the late U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy to overhaul health care, President Jimmy Carter campaigned for national health insurance, and the latest effort as we all know was from President Bill Clinton who almost pushed a sweeping health care reform in the early 1990s.

However, there were some significant victories for reformers, including Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, COBRA and HIPAA, but even these programs had to endure a rough terrain until passage. One thing is for sure — no federal legislation came close to the elusive and taboo “national health insurance” or “national health care” idea.

Today, by the mere fact that a public health insurance plan is even being considered, all the same past fears are evoked. What follows is the historical tendency to kill any and all reform just as it has been for almost 100 years.

It’s shocking it’s been almost a century of attempts to enact a sweeping national health care reform. Pretty interesting stuff, really.

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