President Truman
"Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection." |
Truman proposed a plan that would involve compulsory health care coverage and a nationwide increase in hospitals and medical professionals.
"I recommend solving the basic problem by distributing the costs through expansion of our existing compulsory social insurance system. This is not socialized medicine." |
"Inequalities in the distribution of medical personnel are matched by inequalities in hospitals and other health facilities. Moreover, there are just too few hospitals, clinics and health centers to take proper care of the people of the United States." |
The plan was seen as radical and was met with opposition. Truman's call for compulsory health insurance was left unfulfilled.
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Harry S. Truman: Address in Philadelphia Upon Accepting the Nomination of the Democratic National Convention, 1948:
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Harry S. Truman: Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union, 1949:
However, the Hill-Burton Act was passed in 1946, which funded the construction of hospitals, particularity in rural areas.
President Eisenhower was a strong advocate of private health
insurance, so it was not until John F. Kennedy became president that another
push for health care legislation would occur.