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Independence, MO —
The issue of expanding health care certainly isn’t new to American history. Harry Truman provided a special message to Congress on the nation’s health needs on April 22, 1949, which the Truman Library reminded visitors to its website Thursday. As far back as November 1945, President Truman had recommended to Congress the enactment of comprehensive legislation to improve the health of the U.S. population.
“We are in an era of startling medical progress,” Truman said in 1949. “The technical resources available to the physician are tremendously greater than a generation ago. ... As a nation, we have not yet succeeded in making the benefits of these scientific advances available to all those who need them. The best hospitals, the finest research laboratories, and the most skillful physicians are of no value to those who cannot obtain their services.”
Sixty-three years ago, Truman said that Congress must make available enough medical services and see that everybody has a chance to receive those services. He said the country was short of physicians, dentists, nurses, medical technicians and public health workers and that the United States needed “broader, better supported medical research.”
He recommended that Congress enact legislation providing a nationwide system of health insurance. He reiterated that the legislation would not require doctors to become government employees, and it would not interfere with the personal relationship between doctors and patients.
“Health insurance will mean that proper medical care will be economically accessible to everyone covered by it, in the country as well as in the city, as a right and not as a medical dole,” Truman said. “It will mean that more people will obtain the preventive care which is so important, and that more people will be able to have better medical care. Thus health insurance will provide an effective demand for the additional doctors, nurses and other medical personnel we need to improve our health. The provision of more doctors and medical personnel goes hand in hand with better arrangements for paying for their services.”
The issue of expanding health care certainly isn’t new to American history. Harry Truman provided a special message to Congress on the nation’s health needs on April 22, 1949, which the Truman Library reminded visitors to its website Thursday. As far back as November 1945, President Truman had recommended to Congress the enactment of comprehensive legislation to improve the health of the U.S. population.
“We are in an era of startling medical progress,” Truman said in 1949. “The technical resources available to the physician are tremendously greater than a generation ago. ... As a nation, we have not yet succeeded in making the benefits of these scientific advances available to all those who need them. The best hospitals, the finest research laboratories, and the most skillful physicians are of no value to those who cannot obtain their services.”
Sixty-three years ago, Truman said that Congress must make available enough medical services and see that everybody has a chance to receive those services. He said the country was short of physicians, dentists, nurses, medical technicians and public health workers and that the United States needed “broader, better supported medical research.”
He recommended that Congress enact legislation providing a nationwide system of health insurance. He reiterated that the legislation would not require doctors to become government employees, and it would not interfere with the personal relationship between doctors and patients.
“Health insurance will mean that proper medical care will be economically accessible to everyone covered by it, in the country as well as in the city, as a right and not as a medical dole,” Truman said. “It will mean that more people will obtain the preventive care which is so important, and that more people will be able to have better medical care. Thus health insurance will provide an effective demand for the additional doctors, nurses and other medical personnel we need to improve our health. The provision of more doctors and medical personnel goes hand in hand with better arrangements for paying for their services.”
