This is a good article outlining the past missed opportunities for universal healthcare, and how the issue will become a top priority with the American people again soon.
Bubba blew it. But can U.S. health care be fixed?
Other government programs, healthier nations show it's possible
By Robert Bazell
Chief science and health correspondent
MSNBC
... But Clinton refused to accept it. Instead he allowed Hillary Clinton to set up one of the great farcical bureaucratic efforts of all time — her commission to reform health care. As the months dragged on, it became the shooting gallery where every one of the myriad special interests in health care could fire off repeated rounds, killing any chance of reform.
Clinton’s missed opportunity was the third time since World War II that universal health care was on the table with a serious desire for results. Harry Truman wanted it. So did Lyndon Johnson. Truman got nothing and Johnson, with his masterful control of Congress, managed to win Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor, but universal coverage escaped him. For Truman and Johnson, the American Medical Association led the charge against what they saw as “socialized medicine.”
Thus America remains the only industrialized country where financing health is not considered a government function like building highways and supporting national defense. We have a right to clean water piped to our homes, but not access to medical care.
Why repeat this history? Because health care reform will become a big deal again soon. Right now the Iraq war and gas prices are dominating the political discussion, but lack of affordable heath care impacts so many Americans that it must rise to the top of the agenda again. ...
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