U.S. Government’s Involvement In Healthcare {continued}

The last 50 years have made the biggest impact on where our healthcare system stands today. In our previous blog post, we covered the history of healthcare from the late 1880s to the mid-1900s.

Brief history of healthcare continued…

• 1965: President Lyndon Johnson moved a bill through Congress that created Medicare and Medicaid. The government expanded proposed legislation to include physician services for the aged.

• Early 1990s: Unsuccessful attempt to overhaul the U.S. Healthcare system. Hillary Clinton guided a project aimed to convince Congress to move towards a universal health insurance system.

• 2008: The rise of support in the universal health insurance bill. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, three of the most successful Democratic presidential primary challengers, agree to support a universal health insurance bill.

• Early 2009: President Barack Obama asked Congress to develop a universal health insurance proposal. “My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is that the amount of money you will spend on premiums will be less,” Obama said. “If you are one of 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will after this plan becomes a law.”

• Late 2009: Final version of ACA – H.R. 3590 – debated by Senate. The final vote was 60-39 to give final approval to the bill.

• Early 2010: Congress sent President Barack Obama an ACA “fixer bill” – H.R. 4872. This bill makes several changes to the H.R. 3590 bill, including changes to health-related financing and revenues. It also modifies higher education assistance provisions. The two bills (H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872) combined are referred to as the ACA.

• Early 2012: U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on legal challenges to ACA. One of the challenges was concerning a provision to the ACA that would require most individuals to own health coverage or else pay a penalty. Another challenge concerns the individual mandate provision.

• Late 2012: President Barack Obama’s re-election confirmed that the ACA will remain a law.

• Today: Government producing materials to help public understand the law. Federal agencies, state regulatory agencies and other various groups have been developing rule-making notices, white papers, regulations and more to help the public interpret regulations, procedures, forms, processes and programs needed to implement the law.

We aim to give our readers the facts. We hope that this information has been helpful and will encourage you to make decisions and form opinions, about our healthcare system, based on facts and not political rhetoric.