Deleted member 1487
How would we be able to get an American society like the Europeans? No Vietnam war?
How would we be able to get an American society like the Europeans? No Vietnam war?
Government run health care in the US would lead to a marked decline in the quality of care, rationing of health care, and waiting lists for health care procedures.
I think we're looking at three requirements; money, political capital, and a desire/perceived need for universal health care.
The first two can be finagled as other posters have pointed out. Delay or prevent Vietnam and Johnson has the money and political power to attempt it. Delay or prevent Vietnam and Watergate and Nixon has the same.
(It seems odd but Nixon was surprisingly liberal on domestic issues. Among other things, he founded the EPA and seriously proposed a negative income tax. His reasons may not have been altruistic, but which politicians' are?)
That leaves the desire/perceived need for health care and that's quite a hurdle. However, instead of vaulting over that hurdle, we could approach it incrementally.
Instead of a full blown universal health care system being put in place at once, why not a series of incremental steps? Johnson began Medicaid as part of his slate of Great Society programs. We could have later administrations adding to that program's scope and size until an universal system appears in the 80s. Each incremental step "proves" it's worth and sparks the desire/perceived need for the next.
Given American cultural precepts, I think an incremental legislative process that produces universal care over a period of time is far more plausible than a complete system immediately produced b government action.
Bill
(It seems odd but Nixon was surprisingly liberal on domestic issues. Among other things, he founded the EPA and seriously proposed a negative income tax. His reasons may not have been altruistic, but which politicians' are?)
Perhaps if Truman had made it a priority before the worst of the Cold War hysteria kicked in. Once that happens, it becomes much harder. You can see that lingering fear today in some of the comments to this thread.
A much weaker Republican Party on a national level. Much like Social Security won alleigiance to the Democrats, so would national healthcare. (And that's exactly why GOP fights it tooth and nail today.)
No bankruptcy for US auto companies today. Healthcare costs under a privatized system made up more than the debt that drove the company to failure. (To be sure, they made other huge mistakes.)
In general the US economy would be stronger and healthier since our overpriced and underperforming private healthcare is an anchor around the economy's neck.
The reason Truman wasn't able to do it wasn't only Cold War hysteria, it also had a lot to do with the fact that universal healthcare meant healthcare for whites and blacks, the latter being a huge obstacle in getting it to pass in the first place because of the Dixiecrats within the New Deal coalition.
Are there any books that touch upon this specifically?
Government run health care in the US would lead to a marked decline in the quality of care, rationing of health care, and waiting lists for health care procedures.
I would certainly never equate the Federal Government with "making the American way more humane and ultimately more efficient." First off, the more humane method may not be the most efficient. Second, the Government never runs anything more efficiently, just more expensively.