A brief historical record regarding national health care.

During the 1960's Ronald Reagan was the key participant in an American Medical Association (AMA) sponsored campaign to prevent the enactment of Medicare. The image to the left is the cover of a 1961 LP (that is a vinyl long playing record, folks). Reagan and the AMA partnered to cut this record, a 10 minute argument against Medicare. As far as I can see, this was the first effort at mass communication that did not involve the print or televised media. Even without email, cell phones and computers, Reanoldo Magnus, was an innovator and leader.

Jimmy Carter, in his defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan, pushed national health care as part of his re-election campaign. It was not a driving issue, for Carter, but it was an issue, nonetheless.

I do not remember Bill Clinton running on "national health care." Perhaps he did, but, certainly, the first two years of his presidency (1991 and 1992) was all about national health care. Bill Clinton turned this responsibility over to his wife, Hillary, who organized a 500 member council without a single Republican or doctor on that council. The effort failed. The American people hated the Democrat solution. In the end, this failed effort led to one of the most one sided national midterm elections in history (November '92), sweeping the Democrats out of control of both the Senate and the House and "flipping" many of the nation's governorship. This election shaped the political scene for the next 14 years.

National health care reform was a vital issue during Bush 43's re-election campaign against John Kerry. Near the end of his first term, (December 2003) George W signed the Medicare Part D prescription cost sharing bill. It will add 1.2 trillion to the national debt over the ten year period beginning in 2006 (the year the bill went into effect). Today, it offers assistance to more than 27 million people. Bush has been heavily criticized for the bill because it was/is essentially an unpaid piece of legislation ----- you know, kind of like Social Security and Medicare, but I think the truth of the matter is that the Dems were angry because they did not think of it first. An important note is this: The 2004 presidential elections did not go well for the Republicans. While they maintained control of both houses of congress, the GOP lost major legislative ground -- leading to the GOP election debacle in 2006, giving congress back to the Democrat. A major influence in this election was Medicare Part D.

Finally, we all know of the 2009/2010 Democrat "legislative cram down" and the price the Democrat congress paid for that legislation. Understand that the American people support health care reform. They do not support using "health care" as an opportunity to "fundamentally transform" this great country. We all wonder, "why can't health care reform be about health care reform?" Maybe, someday, our congress will get it right.

Conclusion: for two decades, congress, under the leadership of both parties, has paid the price on every occasion it has fooled around with national health care. Maybe someone will wake up to the notion that this needs to be a state issue.