John Kennedy and the Long, Long Fight for Public Medical Insurance in America

From the Democratic Underground Website: "In 1962 seniors and retirees were not covered by private insurance, which had been invented only 30 years before. When inevitably overcome by illness they paid for medical expenses out-of-pocket, routinely leading to their impoverishment. By the early 1960's this had become a national scandal and President Kennedy took up the issue.

"It's remarkable to be reminded of how skilled he was as well as how little has changed in the political landscape. Medicare was passed three years later. Teddy took up the cause for a universal single-payer plan against Nixon in 1971."

The truth is that the Affordable Health Care Act shouldn't be known as "Obamacare", it is a process that every Democratic President since FDR has tried to bring forth out of the Congress and through the Supreme Court.

Over seventy-five year as a matter of fact.

To me it seems this lack of a more comprehensive public/private health care program has been a glaring flaw in the American Social Compact. While I have usually been able to afford insurance, I can remember a time when I was new at a job and unable to get insurance.

At one point when I was about thirty I became very sick for about three days. I was unable to keep any food down, was sick as a dog, and had severe flu-like symtoms I won't give details upon. I HOPED it was food poisoning and would pass because I knew if I went to a hospital it might cost me thousands of dollars. So my wife and I treated it as best I could, and, luckily for me, I got better. It was a case of food poisoning from a delicatessen I no longer went to afterwards.

This happened to other friends of mine--too new in jobs to get health coverage they "toughed it out" at home when they got sick until they could be at a job long enough to qualify for benefits. Benefits for health care were available on the open market, but they were very costly.

I also knew, then and now, that millions of parents with sick kids and elderly people not quite of Medicare age (65) were facing some tougher problems. People who had been laid off or fired from their jobs suddenly couldn't afford to get sick. They had to decide if had to bite the bullet and risk the rent money or the food budget and see a doctor. Or if they needed treatment or found themselves in an accident that required emergency care for themselves, they had to figure out how to afford it. By law people couldn't be turned away from a PUBLIC hospital, but they could be turned away from a private one.

Now, things are better in this country because of the Affordable Care Act. It could be better, but something has paid off after a long, long fight and that's something that those who are undecided whom to vote for this year in America should remember.

The "conservatives" of today are all about freedom, the freedom to not only prosper but the freedom to risk your life or face bankruptcy when a severe medical situation occurs. People in a civilized nation shouldn't have to make that choice, or go hat-in-hand to some private charity to get help for their kids. Access to health care is not a consumer product; it is a necessity.

In May of 1962, John Kennedy made a major speech on the issue at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

To quote Democratic Underground Again:

"If there are any younger DU members who wonder why he and his brothers are held in such high esteem, this should answer that."