Posted by SLS on March 22, 2010, at 7:08:30 [reposted on March 23, 2010, at 1:05:59 | original URL]
In reply to Re: New Health Bill Passed + Ammended Hour Later, posted by sdb on March 22, 2010, at 6:09:39
> Why is there so much angry and hate among people who are against the health reform?
>
> I don't understand why it should be negative when the system does include people who can't afford medical coverage.
>
> In Europe, health insurance is often obligatory or costless and it is considered as normal.
>
> Has this something to do with US history?
----------------------------------------------- 1798: The Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen in 1798 marks the beginning of federal involvement in health care.
- 1854: President Franklin Pierce vetoes a national mental health bill on the basis
that it would be unconstitutional to regard health as anything but a private matter in
which government should not become involved.
Related- 1912: Former President Theodore Roosevelt campaigns as the Progressive Party
candidate on a platform calling for a single national health service.- 1920: The Snyder Act of 1920 is the first federal legislation to deal with health care for Native Americans, setting up the beginnings of what became the Indian Health Service.
- 1921: The Maternity and Infancy Act of 1921 (Sheppard-Towner Act) provides grants to
states to plan maternal and child health services. The legislation serves as a prototype for federal grants-in-aid to the states in the area of health.- 1924: The Veterans Act of 1924 codifies and extends federal responsibilities for health care services to veterans, who receive aid if they are injured in the line of
service.- 1939: The Wagner National Health Act of 1939, FDR's second push for national health insurance, fails as Southern Democrats align with Republicans to oppose government expansion.
- 1943: The National War Labor Board declares employer contributions for health insurance to be tax free, which encourages companies to offer health-insurance packages
to attract workers.
Related- 1943: The Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill is introduced, calling for broad additions to the Social Security Act, including health insurance measures. The bill never came to a vote in Congress. A revised version was introduced in May 1945 but was never acted upon.
- 1945: President Harry Truman recommends a national health insurance program during a
special address to Congress. The McCarran-Fergurson Act of 1945 exempts the insurance industry from federal antitrust legislation- 1946: The National Health Policy Hospital Survey and Construction Act of 1946 provides grants to states to inventory and survey existing hospital and public health
care facilities in each state and to plan for new ones.- 1948: Truman's National Health Insurance Initiative fails after the American Medical
Association criticizes it, and some Republicans compare it to communism.- 1951: Truman creates, by executive order, the President's Commission on the Health
Needs of the Nation. The commission was to determine the nation's health requirements,
both immediate and long-term, and to recommend courses of action to meet those needs.- 1952: Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower campaigns against national health insurance.
- 1954: President Dwight Eisenhower, with the objective of enabling private insurance companies to broaden their coverage, proposes a plan of federal reinsurance for any
private company as protection against heavy losses resulting from health insurance. After the first five years, the program would become self-financing with money derived from premiums paid by the insurance companies. The House soundly rejects the plan.
Eisenhower calls a conference to try to salvage it and is told the Senate can't fit the plan into its agenda.- 1959: A bill is introduced by Rep. Aime J. Forand, D-R.I., to provide hospital, surgical and nursing home benefits for old-age and survivors insurance beneficiaries using the Social Security administrative mechanism. The program is to be financed by an
increase in the Social Security tax. The bill fails.- 1960: Legislation is enacted establishing limited medical assistance for the aged
through the Social Security program. The act also provides aid to the states to help "medically indigent" people 65 or older. Participation by states is optional; 25 take part.
Related- 1962: President John F. Kennedy renews his 1961 request that the old-age, survivors
and disability provisions of the Social Security Act be amended to provide health insurance protection for the aged.- 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the landmark federal health
insurance programs known as Medicare and Medicaid.- 1971: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., offers his national health insurance plan.
The "Health Security Act" calls for a universal single-player plan to be financed through payroll taxes. President Richard Nixon later advances his own version of a bill, the National Health Insurance Partnership Act. It would preserve private insurance but
require businesses to provide coverage to employees or make payments to a government-run
fund. It also endorses the concept of health maintenance organizations. The bill fails.- 1973: Legislation is enacted to encourage development of health maintenance organizations.
- 1974: Nixon proposes his Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan calling for universal coverage, voluntary employer participation and a separate program for the working poor
and the unemployed, replacing Medicaid. Organized labor lobbied successfully to kill the plan, hoping get a better deal after the next elections. That didn't happen.- 1977: The Health Care Financing Administration is created to manage Medicare and
Medicaid separately from the Social Security Administration.- 1979: Sen. Kennedy proposes that private insurance plans compete for customers who
would receive a card to use for hospital and physician's care. Employers would bear the
bulk of the cost for their workers, with the government picking up costs for the poor. President Jimmy Carter's plan, released a month later, proposes that businesses provide a minimum package of benefits, that public coverage for the poor and aged be expanded and that a new public corporation created to sell coverage to everyone else. Neither
proposal makes it through Congress.- 1985: The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA), signed
into law by President Ronald Reagan, mandates an insurance program giving some employees
the ability to continue health insurance coverage from their workplace after leaving the
job. In addition, hospice care is made a permanent part of Medicare and extended to
states for Medicaid.- 1988: The Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act provides the largest expansion of
benefits since the creation of the program and increases premiums. But act causes
dissension, in part because long-term services are not covered and more affluent beneficiaries don't need the expanded coverage. The act is repealed before provisions go into effect. The McKinney Act is signed into law, providing health care to the homeless.- 1990: The Americans with Disabilities Act provides a broad range of protections for
the disabled.- 1993: President Bill Clinton proposes the most ambitious reworking of the health
care system since Medicare and Medicaid, aiming squarely for universal coverage. But he
cannot persuade fellow Democrats in control of Congress to adopt it. The proposals drew
strong opposition from the health care industry and employers. The Childhood
Immunization Act supports the provision of vaccines for children eligible for Medicaid, children without health insurance, and Native American children.- 1996: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act improves continuity of health insurance coverage in group and individual markets for people who lose their job. The act also promotes medical savings accounts and improves access to long-term care services and coverage.
- 1997: The State Children's Health Insurance Program is established to help provide
medical care to children in low-income families that are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.- 2003: President George W. Bush signs a law adding prescription drugs to Medicare.
- Jan. 19, 2010: Republican Scott Brown's upset in the Massachusetts Senate seat
opened by Sen. Kennedy's death deprives Democrats of the 60 votes needed to move legislation forward. The effort to reconcile health overhaul bills passed by the House and Senate is stalled.- March 2010: Democratic leaders in Congress employ parliamentary maneuvers in hopes of enabling passage of Obama's plan with a simple majority in the Senate.
- March 21, 2010: On a 219-212 vote, House passes landmark legislation aimed at extending insurance to 32 million people and achieving nearly universal coverage.
poster:SLS
thread:940515
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20090821/msgs/940517.html