(snip)
But the truth is that before LBJ became President, John F. Kennedy had worked on Medicare for 18 months. JFK began the fight in January of 1961. By “the end of the 1961 session of Congress, the tempo of the Kennedy administration's Medicare campaign began to pick up,” reports Peter A. Corning in The Evolution of Medicare—From Idea to Law, a book Corning wrote for the Social Security administration while memories were still fresh in 1969. A few weeks later, Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Ribicoff publicly pledged "a great fight across the land" for Medicare. Medicare was a featured topic around the country in late October at a series of 14 White House-sponsored regional conferences.”
Gallup polls showed public support running as high as 69 percent. “By far the most important cause for optimism during the spring of 1962, though, was the progress of behind-the-scenes negotiations between administration strategists and the members of the Ways and Means Committee,” Corn writes.” Several compromise ideas were under discussion...
“The climax of the public debate came in the spring of 1962. On Sunday, May 20, President Kennedy spoke to a crowd of nearly 20,000 elderly people in New York's Madison Square Garden, while other administration officials addressed similar rallies in 45 cities. The President's speech was broadcast live over three television networks to an estimated home audience of 20 million persons. Two days later, the AMA's Dr. Edward Annis replied in a network speech broadcast from the same platform used by the President, but with the Garden auditorium dramatically empty, to symbolize the AMA's "underdog" stance.” Estimates suggested that 30 million people watched his speech.
Two months later, the full Senate voted on the bill, and Medicare was defeated 52-48. Once again the AMA had steamrolled the opposition. But Kennedy had laid the groundwork for passage, both in Congress, where many liberal Republicans supported the idea, and throughout the country.
Link
http://www.healthbeatblog.org/2008/12/what-does-health-care-reform-mean-how-quickly-can-we-get-there-lbjs-example-part-1-.htmlChronology of Significant Events Leading to Enactment of Medicare
http://www.ssa.gov/history/cornignappa.html
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