Discussion of health reform this year often touches upon how the process and substance are so different than what occurred in 1993-4, even though many of the people engaged in the current effort were also involved then too.
Historical events are clearly important for setting the political and policy environment for any legislation, and in healthcare there are very clear examples of stagger-stepping to success:
At the Federal level, health insurance/coverage laws and proposals date back to the 1930s:
- National health insurance for the elderly was supposed to be the second part of a new social safety net – after the creation of Social Security
- Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965.