I just got finished reading "One Nation Uninsured" for the
We The People Project. This book specificly addresses the history of the universal healthcare movement in this country in it's various forms and I learned things I had no idea about. I had no idea that there had been calls for universal healthcare since the 1910s, nor did I realize it was physicians themselves that were the biggest opponants of it at the time.
More after the flip
For nearly a century this struggle has been playing out with different groups and powers shuffling through the process with the only major success being the passing of Medicare for senior citizens. This book discusses how medicare passed and how other, more inclusive programs were defeated.
In addition, the book is filled with subtle ironies and de ja vous. For instance, proposals in the 1910s were denounced by the American Medical Association saying it would cause repressive government interference in the patient/doctor relationship. The biggest irony being that interference they so worried about from government programs is now being implemented in privage health insurance programs.
It also talked about the red scare, and the denoucement of all things "liberal" or "progressive" as "socialism" and "communism". It also talked about the origins of the Red Scare coming from the bloody revolution in Russia in 1917 and the official stated goal of communism at the time to invade other countries from within and assimilate them. Still it's kind of pathetic that the right can't get past that. Entire generations of Americans raised with an almost Pavlovian repulsion of anything progressive out of fear the big bad commies are out to get us...90 years later.
It also showed how events in history, Like the deaths of presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy, and even Teddy's Chappaquidik incident, have set back the national health care movement.
I would definately recommend this book to anyone that wants to understand how we got where we are and possibly what we need to do to go further.
This little trip though American History in the 20th century has also made me realize that events right now, while certainly going into a dark direction, are not the darkest our nation has ever been. In addition to providing the history of the healthcare movement, it also displays very subtle references of the past that make me wonder about what is happening in the present.
One of the best quotes to that affect from the book I found was:
On July 17,1979 [Carter] told members of his cabinet that their performance had been unsatisfactory. All offered to tender their resignations, and by the following week he had accepted 5. ...Instead of demonstrating that he was in control, the firings suggested that Carter could not take criticism and was subject to emotional whims.
That one really made me think about Bush and his innability to dismiss anyone in his cabinet. Would a man subject to emotional whims be afraid to be perceived in public, as a man subject emotional whims?
Anyway, It's fueled my drive to come up with a better system. I hope you'll join me. I think I have some unique ideas as it is now, but I'm willing to bet you all have some. The sad fact though is this: if you want healthcare, you're going to have to get it yourself.