Why was health insurance not included in the Social Security Act of 1935?
score:14
Because the medical profession was opposed to it. Roosevelt's administration feared that including the universal health insurance provisions would kill the entire Social Security Act.
For the sake of passing the Social Security bill, we postponed the introduction of the bill on health insurance as the opposition was so great from the American Medical Association (principally) that it would have killed the whole Social Security Act if it had been pressed at that time.
Lampman, Robert J. "Social Security Perspectives: Essays by Edwin E. Witte." Madison, University of Wisconsin (1962).
Edwin Witte was the Executive Director of the Committee on Economic Security, established in June 1934 to work on what would become the Social Security Act. The proposals for providing public health insurance provoked outrage from medical organisations such as the American Medical Association
By then, the AMA's opposition to national health insurance had become even more fierce. in the Journal of the American Medical Association, national health insurance was presented as an un-American menace to the public health, undermining the traditional American values of individualism and self-reliance ... In later years, Edwin Witte would claim again and again that it had been his "original belief" that health insurance was not politically feasible, mainly due to the opposition of the medical profession.
- Kooijman, Jaap. ... And the Pursuit of National Health: The Incremental Strategy Toward National Health Insurance in the United States of America. Vol. 8. Rodopi, 1999.
In early 1935, the Social Security bill was languishing in Congress, where the universal healthcare section received little vocal support. In contrast, the AMA was strongly opposed and influential in Congress. This convinced Witte and the CES that retaining public health insurance would prevent the bill's passage.
CES staffers admitted privately that ... "extreme care is necessary to avoid the organized opposition of the medical profession," and that "there is not a very great chance for the adoption of legislation at this Session on the subject." When the time came to present the committee's final report ... those who feared that controversy over health insurance would doom the whole bill won out and the health title was dropped.
- Gordon, Colin. Dead on Arrival: The Politics of Health Care in Twentieth-Century America. Princeton University Press, 2009.
With Social Security seemingly bogged down, Roosevelt decided to hold off on public health insurance, and ultimately shelved the idea altogether in favour of increasing the availability of medical care.
FDR met with Perkins in September 1935 and informed her that he wanted the Social Security Board to take no action on health insurance until after the 1936 election at the earliest ... The election campaign further clarified Roosevel'ts public views on universal health care coverage ... [in a speech, Roosevelt said] "On occasions in the past attempts have been made to put medicine into politics. Such attempts have always failed and always will fail."
- Blumenthal, David, and James A. Morone. The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office. University of California Press, 2010.
More post
- 📝 Why was Ormond Castle in Scotland so called?
- 📝 Did the Danes sack Hamburg after the conquest of Hedeby in 983?
- 📝 How do I prove that Mahatma Gandhi said the following?
- 📝 How do new countries legally and without bloodshed declare themselves independent?
- 📝 What were the reasons for making Prohibition a constitutional amendment?
- 📝 Why were the losses in the Battle of Norfolk so lopsided?
- 📝 Is there actual debate over which country (Brazil or Portugal) is the successor state to the original Portugal?
- 📝 Oldest manuscript of Arthashastra
- 📝 How did the KPD relate to the German state during the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?
- 📝 What was the impetus behind the British Empire's acquisition of what is now Canada?
- 📝 How were expelled ministers "witnessed" during the Great Ejection of 1662?
- 📝 Why did Paris name a metro station and a street after Étienne Marcel?
- 📝 What kind of missile flew with such speed in 1st century BCE?
- 📝 What was 250,000 rubles worth in 1918?
- 📝 French WW 1 infantry field uniforms
- 📝 Is taking away decorations of traitors a normal modus operandi?
- 📝 Why and when were ancient Egyptian hieroglyph phonograms used?
- 📝 Why has Hainan been so little fought over?
- 📝 Bretton Woods System : The Meaning as International Monetary System
- 📝 Why did Confederate General Forrest leave the KKK?
- 📝 Connection between U.S. entry into WW1 and Germans sending Lenin back to Russia
- 📝 Surrender Ceremonies at the End of WW2: What happened after documents signed?
- 📝 Did any Nazi TV news broadcasts survive?
- 📝 What was (if at all) Hitler's Plan B if Molotov-Ribbentrop had not worked out?
- 📝 Regarding Khomeini's speech against USA in Qom-1964?
- 📝 Before television sets became commonplace, did people generally watch movies only once?
- 📝 Are there any reliable documented records of members or operations of the French Resistance during World War 2?
- 📝 How many USA men dodged the draft in Vietnam, and how?
- 📝 When did fluorescent lights become common in Europe?
- 📝 Was Bohemia part of the Frankish Empire in 814?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why was health insurance not included in the Social Security Act of 1935?
- 📝 Why was 6 WTC not included in the plans to rebuild the World Trade Center?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why was Switzerland not attacked during the two World Wars?
- 📝 Why was PTSD not written about as much before the 20th century?
- 📝 Why was Iceland not a part of the Danish-Swedish deal in Kiel in 1814?
- 📝 Why was the Greek alphabet not adopted by other languages, given the Greek influence?
- 📝 Why was slavery profitable in the Southern colonies and not New England?
- 📝 Why did Japan not withdraw from China as its pacific front was crumbling and the threat of US invasion imminent?
- 📝 Why was New Guinea not colonized by Austronesians the way Indonesia was?
- 📝 Why was Kentucky not admitted to the Union in 1789?
- 📝 Why was Copernicus not persecuted by the church, but Galileo was?
- 📝 Why was the Aeolipile not put to practical use in classical antiquity?
- 📝 Why was the Ottoman empire not seen as an Arabic empire?
- 📝 Why was the Me262 not suited for a bomber role?
- 📝 Why was Italy unified under the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and not under a stronger state?
- 📝 Why was Charles I not pressed by *peine forte et dure* to force him to plead to treason in front of the High Court?
- 📝 Why was it Spain, not Tlaxcala, that dominated over Mesoamerica despite the Tlaxcaltecs being the major force in the conquest of Tenochtitlan?
- 📝 What was the first health insurance company in America?
- 📝 Why was Poland able to resist the Swedish invasion during the Deluge, but not during the time of Charles XII?
- 📝 Why was the Old Wardour Castle not demolished after the English Civil War?
- 📝 Why was the German system of interlocking plates not used after WWII for armored vehicle construction?
- 📝 Why was Columbus not aware of the existence of America?
- 📝 Why was Germany not broken up at the end of WW1
- 📝 Why was a gold standard not stipulated in the U.S. Constitution?
- 📝 Why was Apple not able to compete with Microsoft in the home PC market?
- 📝 Why was Ruminawi not eligible to the throne?
- 📝 Why was James II and VII (same person), the last Roman Catholic monarch of Britain, not forced to convert to Anglicanism?
- 📝 Why was there a "workers' militia" in Eastern Europe but not in the USSR?
- 📝 Why was Schuyler Colfax not present at the vote to reconsider the 13th amendment?