Health Care Reform Chronology
Milestones Leading up to the Enactment of Obamacare
1912 — Former President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning on the Progressive Party ticket, calls for universal health insurance coverage. 1932 — A commission headed by Interior Secretary Ray Lyman Wilbur finds that millions of Americans lack access to adequate medical attention and recommends expansion of group medical practices and repayment systems to spread financial risk. The American Medical Association denounces the recommendations as “socialist.” 1933 — President Franklin Roosevelt asks those drafting Social Security legislation to include publicly funded health care programs. The reforms are attacked by the American Medical Association and are removed from the bill. 1943 —The Wagner–Murray–Dingell bill,…
