Why the US rejected universal healthcare

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2020

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

The USA is the only rich democracy not to provide universal healthcare. After WW2 US President Harry Truman was horrified that only a fifth of all Americans could afford proper healthcare. Most middle class Americans had no private health insurance and many found medical fees unaffordable. He calculated that more than 300,000 people died every year because they couldn't pay for proper treatment. In 1945 he tried to persuade Congress to push through legislation for an insurance programme meaning all workers would pay for their healthcare through a monthly fee or tax. But the American Medical Association - representing doctors - employed a public relations firm to lobby against the move. Claire Bowes has been listening to archive material of Harry Truman and speaking to Jonathan Oberlander a Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Photo: President Harry Truman in 1947 (courtesy of US National Archives) Archive material: courtesy of the Harry S Truman Library

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:37.0	Hello and thanks for downloading Witness History from the BBC World Service with me Claire Bowes.
0:46.2	The USA is the only rich democracy without universal health care.
0:51.9	In 1945 Harry Truman became the first American president
0:56.3	to endorse a national health insurance plan which would be paid for by the government
1:01.9	through tax. I've been listening to archive material
1:05.1	of President Truman and finding out why he failed. Harry Truman became president in the final months of the Second World War,
1:16.0	taking over from his predecessor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who died in office.
1:22.0	Well, they call me, darker, I could make you feel... died in office. But with war at an end, Truman turned to matters at home. Roosevelt
1:31.6	had pumped millions of dollars into public programs to help rescue America
1:36.4	from the financial ruin of the Great Depression. But FDR's so-called New Deal had left one element out.
1:44.7	Harry Truman sought to fix that.
1:47.1	In thinking about the nation's health,
1:49.4	we must recognize one basic fact. The costs of medical care are prohibited for many
1:56.4	millions of our people. And he succeeds Franklin Roosevelt's new deal by pursuing
2:02.3	what he calls the Fair Deal.
2:05.0	And as part of his agenda, he becomes the first American president to endorse the idea of
	...

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