America's Healthcare System: Where are we going and where did we begin?

It is amidst the reality of failed initiatives to remake the healthcare system of the United States of America over more than 60 years that one approaches the efforts of our Congresspeople and President to pass healthcare reform. I feel that the posting by scholar's logic was an impeccable analysis of the influence of lobbying efforts on healthcare reform. To understand the resistance to healthcare reform happening now it is helpful to look back for inklings into today's political reality. More than sixty years ago Harry Truman tried to enact what he called his “Fair Deal” and (despite its many parts) one thing it centered on was healthcare reform. Lobbying efforts by the American Medical Association led to the failure of Truman's healthcare reform imitative. President Lyndon Baines Johnson had success in passing healthcare reform and signed Medicare & Medicaid into law. One cannot help but note the fact that President Johnson had the support of the American Nurses Association and the American Hospital Association. The loftiest opponent Johnson faced to his ideas of federally funded healthcare and the idea of a national healthcare plan was the American Medical Association. Nevertheless, there were some achievements in 'moving the ball forward' on healthcare reform. People branded his healthcare as socialized medicine and Johnson had trouble with people feeling that many of his reforms were going to the 'undeserving poor'. Moreover, public opinion was decidedly against the deficit spending that would be required to uphold these Federally funded programs. President Nixon's Comprehensive Health Care Act failed in the Congress. The most recent attempt by President's past was of course by Clinton and that also failed. The American Medical Association has been opposed to every major healthcare initiative aimed at reform.

So what is different with President Obama? Won't he Fail? Well one should be put at relative ease considering that the American Medical Association has actually been working with President Obama and has endorsed his plan (as 'a work in progress'). The fact that the American Medical Association is at the table with the Congresspeople (to me at least) seems to say that there is a consensus for change. Those who are arguing for the status quo and claiming that the current government proposals are a form of socialized medicine are correct. Pointing out that these initiatives are proposing socialized medicine is kind of like standing on the highway and screaming out what billboards say to passing traffic. WE KNOW IT IS SOCIALIZED MEDICINE THANKS! We've already socialized medical care for many Americans already (with Medicare & Medicaid).

The fact of the matter is that millions upon millions of Americans are uninsured and so there is a need for socialized medicine. For those who say healthcare is not a right let it be clear what their argument really is: “the poor deserve to die or to be forced into bankruptcy/ in debt for the rest of their lives if they fall ill.” Most people don't choose to get sick. Others choose to make bad decisions that are not conducive to good health and serve as proof for why we need greater emphasis on preventative medical practices.

The point is that we need healthcare for all Americans at affordable prices. The answer is socialized medicine: period.


(P.S.Because I feel an obligation to actually answer the question posed in the title.... Here are some good sites the first is a history of healthcare and the second is a good article from NPR... check it out to find where we're going)
http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/history.htm
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106859971&ft=1&f=1007