Universal Healthcare Coverage in America: A Good Intended Plan Gone Awry
Courtney Wayman
ENG 122
9/7/2013

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.” (Steinbeck, 1937)

“Health care reforms are now a reality in America after a long and tortuous debate. President Obama has achieved a ’victory’ unlike anything seen since the term of President Lyndon Johnson, over 40 years ago. The new law brings America closer to universal coverage and access to affordable health care for its citizens, but the cost of the program and its impact on individuals, physicians, hospitals, the Pharmaceutical and device industry and insurance companies is not yet fully known (Glassock, 2010).” The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, set to be implemented next year, was created with the best of intentions; however it is my belief that after going through the government blender in order to get passed, it came out deeply flawed. Let me start by giving a brief history of the evolution of health care coverage in the United States as illustrated by www.jounaltimes.com . 1912: Former President Theodore Roosevelt champions national health insurance as he unsuccessfully tries to ride his progressive Bull Moose Party back to the White House.
1929: Baylor Hospital in Texas originates group health insurance. Dallas teachers pay 50 cents a month to cover up to 21 days of hospital care per year.
1935: President Franklin D. Roosevelt favors creating national health insurance amid the Great Depression but decides to push for Social Security first.
1942: Roosevelt establishes wage and price controls during World War II. Businesses can't attract workers with higher pay so they compete through added benefits, including health insurance, which grows into a workplace perk.
1945: President Harry Truman calls on Congress to create a national insurance program for those who pay voluntary fees. The American Medical Association denounces the idea as "socialized medicine" and it goes nowhere.
1960: John F. Kennedy makes health care a major campaign issue but as president can't get a plan for the elderly through Congress.
1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson's legendary arm-twisting and a Congress dominated by his fellow Democrats lead to creation of two landmark government health programs: Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.
1974: President Richard Nixon wants to require employers to cover their workers and create federal subsidies to help everyone else buy private insurance. The Watergate scandal intervenes.
1976: President Jimmy Carter pushes a mandatory national health plan, but economic recession helps push it aside.
1986: President Ronald Reagan signs COBRA, a requirement that employers let former workers stay on the company health plan for 18 months after leaving a job, with workers bearing the cost.
1988: Congress expands Medicare by adding a prescription drug benefit and catastrophic care coverage. It doesn't last long. Barraged by protests from older Americans upset about paying a tax to finance the additional coverage, Congress repeals the law the next year.
1993: President Bill Clinton puts first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in charge of developing what becomes a 1,300-page plan for universal coverage. It requires businesses to cover their workers and mandates that everyone have health insurance. The plan meets Republican opposition, divides Democrats and comes under a firestorm of lobbying from businesses and the health care industry. It dies in the Senate.
1997: Clinton signs bipartisan legislation creating a state-federal program to provide coverage for millions of children in families of modest means whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid.
2003: President George W. Bush persuades Congress to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare in a major expansion of the program for older people.
2008: Hillary Rodham Clinton promotes a sweeping health care plan in her bid for