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Healthcare in America – Lest you think the issue of affordable Healthcare is something that has happened over the last ten years, I hate to be the bearer of bum tidings but, no – it’s been going on a very long time – long than is imagined. An issue that has been contemplated, debated and voted on since roughly the end of the Civi War in 1865. During that time, it was an issue of taking care of the massive number of wounded – long before the advent of the Veteran’s Administration. During Teddy Roosevelt’s tenure in 1909, it was contemplated along with sweeping changes taking place in our food and drug manufacturing and enforcing clean and safe practices in providing those services to the American people. Later, it was intended to be a companion set of legislations, going along with Social Security in 1935. When it was withdrawn, out of fear of being “too much – too soon” it was again brought up in 1941, but our involvement in World War 2 precluded just about any legislation not concerning the war effort. Even though it was again brought up in 1943 and again in 1945, a concerted effort to create an affordable healthcare system sadly ended with the death of Franklin Roosevelt and debate on the issue was promptly shelved at least for a while longer. During Harry Truman’s administration it was being brought up again.
This broadcast, made for his constituents by Senator Harry P. Cain R-Wisconsin, he discusses the issue and lays it all out in a clear and concise manner, offering an excellent historic background to this seemingly historic and never-ending subject and debate. It’s the first of two broadcasts dealing with the subject (at the moment, I can only find this first one) and Cain makes no bones about the fact that Affordable Healthcare is a crucial issue affecting everyone in America and one that has been thwarted repeatedly by the AMA and the Pharmaceutical industry (which was a relatively small but increasingly vocal lobby, even in 1949).
Healthcare in America has been a long-running and contentious subject. The Affordable Healthcare Act introduced in recent years was always considered a “boiler plate’ piece of legislation; a starting point to add, improve and modify. It was the very first of such legislation to be passed and turned into law – but it isn’t, nor was it ever intended to be, the final product – it was a start, the first since discussions began over 100 years ago – it was meant to be built upon and shaped, not torn down and abandoned – that would set the clock back about a hundred years.
For further evidence the discussion and debate have been going on a while, here is Senator Harry P. Cain’t talk on the subject of Healthcare in America, recorded on March 15, 1949.
