Learning from History: President Harry Truman and the Effort to Enact National Health Insurance

This paper will examine the politics of an earlier effort to enact national health insurance. In November 1945, President Harry Truman proposed a new national health care program in a special message to the U.S. Congress. He said that “People with low or moderate incomes do not get the same medical attention as those with high incomes. The poor have more sickness, but they get less medical care…Everyone should have ready access to all necessary medical, hospital and related services…the health of the nation is a national concern.” President Truman's effort at national health insurance was defeated. This defeat may have been due to a combination of the Cold War against Communism, the opposition of the American Medical Association and conservatives in Congress, and the Korean War. Many including public health professionals and advocates have asked “why the United States does not have national health insurance.” Looking back at what happened to President Truman's effort might help us to learn what conditions were needed to have brought about national health insurance. What were these conditions? Was it leadership, political party control, public opinion or something else? To most individuals, the American policy process seems incomprehensible and partisan. But learning about politics might just help to move the nation toward enacting national health insurance.