Republican plan to eliminate Medicare

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Riot

True about the 1960's.

Not really. The history of gov't provided health care is long and winding. The SSA website has a good summary. Here's the page on the post-WW2 period through the Truman years, which is when discussion of a national health care system was at its height:

http://www.ssa.gov/history/corningchap3.html

Highlights:

<In sum, the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill was the victim of a cautious Congress, massive resistance by a prestigious and vitally affected interest group, sympathy for the AMA's position from an imposing array of nonmedical groups, a lack of wholehearted support from some of the key proponents, considerable antipathy from the press, the rapid growth of private insurance, and, finally, of a hostile political climate.>

And:
<Years later, President Truman wrote: "I have had some bitter disappointments as President, but the one that has troubled me most, in a personal way, has been the failure to defeat the organized opposition to a National compulsory health insurance program. But this opposition has only delayed and cannot stop the adoption of an indispensable Federal health insurance plan.">

(Oh, Harry; you were such an optimist)

It's easy to credit our Presidents with dictatorial powers (and Shrub and Darth Cheney sure gave a good go at it), but laws are not written by Presidents; they're written by Congress. A President can push for an agenda (and Johnson was a bully and rammed a lot through, no question) but they don't govern by fiat.