A Brief History of Healthcare Legislation 1939-2013

The Congress (House and Senate) passed the 2010 Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare". Reference:  http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ148/pdf/PLAW-111publ148.pdf

FACT - elements in the 2010 ACA bill are based on the elements in the 1993 GOP Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act. This includes the individual mandate that so many people dislike.  I am not making this up.  Read it for yourself.  

Reference: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d103:S1770:  and for those who prefer, a summary is here.   It was the Republican alternative to Hillary Clinton's proposed universal health care.  It was also the core of Massachusetts Health Care under Mitt Romney.  

FACT -  1993 GOP Health Equity and Access Reform Today is based on a 1989 document written by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank.  Again, read it for youself.    Reference:  http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/assuring-affordable-health-care-for-all-americans.  

By the way, on The Heritage Foundation web site at the very bottom, it  says 

"Our mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense."

This concept of national health care goes back even further.  

FACT - The Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill (1943)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1583057/pdf/canmedaj00587-0081.pdf

FACT - President Truman was strongly committed to a single universal comprehensive health insurance plan.  Reference: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/healthprogram.htm

FACT - The National Health Care Act of 1939, which gave general support for a national health program to be funded by federal grants to states and administered by states and localities. Reference:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2624243/pdf/jnma00746-0024.pdf

It isn't difficult to locate additional historic summaries of health care proposals for those interested.  Reference:  http://www.pnhp.org/facts/a-brief-history-universal-health-care-efforts-in-the-us

FACT - There has been over 70 years of debate on national healthcare at the federal level.