President Obama Is Making Great Progress On Healthcare Reform Compared To JFK/LBJ's Medicare Effort! [View All]

I often see President Obama compared unfavorably to Lyndon B. Johnson with respect to Medicare. The simplistic reasoning gives Lyndon Johnson sole credit for the development and passage of Medicare. However, such analysis reflects either historical illiteracy or an agenda to disparage President Obama's current efforts to reform our health care system.

The fact of the matter is that health care reform was the cornerstone of President Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1960 and followed President Truman's more ambitious efforts to provide universal coverage. President Kennedy campaigned on Medicare, and in 1961 called for the enactment of "measures to provide health care for the elderly ... this year." President Kennedy initiated a series of rallies and public relation efforts to secure the passage of Medicare in 1962, but these efforts (you guessed it) bogged down in Congress. A conservative coalition of Southern Democrats and Republicans were able to stymie the passage of Medicare. In November 1963, JFK was assassinated. Despite the outpouring of grief, Lyndon Johnson still was unable to pass Medicare prior to the 1964 election. However, after his landslide victory in 1964, Lyndon Johnson was able to secure the passage of Medicare in 1965 five years after President Kennedy ran on it in 1960, and vowed to get it passed this year in 1961!

Here is a Washington Post article reviewing some of the polling data behind the fight for Medicare, which demonstrates that it was not the slam dunk that President Obama's critics suggest. After all, health care for seniors seems like a political slam dunk, but it was not. It was a five year fight that was aided in part by the outpouring of support following President Kennedy's assassination. Even with President Johnson's resounding victory, public opinion on Medicare took a long time to evolve toward being moderately, but not overwhelmingly, supportive over a period of five years with a charismatic Kennedy and a veteran political insider in Lyndon Johnson.

When seen in proper historical context, President Obama's efforts at reforming health care are extremely impressive. If judged against the standard currently being applied to President Obama, then JFK/LBJ appear absolutely incompetent, since it took them over five years to pass a bill that on its face sounds like a political slam dunk, health care for the elderly, and since they reflected a dramatic reduction in scope from earlier efforts under President Truman to provide for universal healthcare coverage back in 1945.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2009/07/health_care_reform_circa_1965.html

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Health Care Reform Circa 1965: Polling on Medicare
The political battle lasted for years. After one young Democratic president's attempt to change the way some Americans get their health care failed, the fight was revived following the election of another Democrat a few years later. Some favored a government run program. Others backed a plan operated by private insurers, with government-funded subsidies to assist those with lower-incomes in paying their premiums. It all came to a head by July... 1965.

The program was Medicare, and sparring over its passage - 44 years ago this month - closely resembles the debate taking place in Washington today as the House and Senate roll out their versions of health care reform.

A July 1962 Gallup poll found mixed feelings about President John F. Kennedy's proposal, 28 percent said they held generally favorable views of his plan, 24 percent were generally unfavorable, and a sizable plurality (33 percent) said they didn't have an opinion on it or hadn't heard about the plan. A month later, after Congress had rejected Kennedy's proposal, an Opinion Research Corporation poll found 44 percent said the plan should have passed, while 37 percent felt Congress did the right thing.

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Following Pres. Lyndon Johnson's election, Americans remained somewhat divided on the plan, with 46 percent telling Harris pollsters in Feb. 1965 that they'd prefer "a Federal law which would provide medical care for the aged by a special tax, like Social Security" and 36 percent more inclined to support "a plan of expanded private health insurance." Then, as now, Democrats were more apt to favor the government option (58 percent) than were Republicans (27 percent).

Asked another way, 62 percent said they favored "President Johnson's program of medical care for the aged under Social Security." A smaller majority, 56 percent, backed the American Medical Association's alternative plan, which would have "everyone who could afford it covered by private health insurance" and "those who couldn't afford it ...covered under a government health plan."

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