What do Harry Truman, Barack Obama, healthcare reform, and a pint of Jim Beam have in common?

July 30, 2009 – I have a big, thick leather-bound book sitting on a shelf downstairs in my library. I saw it the other day and I thought of President Barack Obama’s health care reform proposal.

The name of the book? “Socialized Medicine,” by Zolly Frank.

I thought about that book this afternoon when I read the White House press secretary’s pool report from today’s dog and pony show at the AARP.

If you hadn’t heard by now, the president was out today, drumming up support for his health care overhaul at the Washington, DC headquarters of the American Association of Retired Persons. He took a series of questions designed to let him answer to this key demographic’s most pressing concerns about his healthcare vision.

The moderator was AARP radio host Mike Cuthbert and there were roughly 60 people in the studio audience, plus callers from Colorado, Texas, Illinois and Kansas, among others, and the president took written e-mailed questions read by Cuthbert during the one-hour session, according to trusty pool reporter Bartholomew Sullivan of Scripps Howard News Service.

To me, the most interesting item from Mr. Sullivan’s pool report was this:

“One of the more colorful moments came when [President Obama] told the audience: “I got a letter the other day from a woman who said, ‘I don’t want government-run healthcare. I don’t want socialized medicine and don’t touch my Medicare.’” The audience laughed.”

I’m not here to weigh in on the statement, nor to weigh in on President Obama’s vision for American health care. But I am passing along a lovely observation by a longtime reader who, hearing me discuss past failed healthcare reform movements, dove in with this:

“Sure, everyone is talking about the failures of the Clinton administration’s attempts at healthcare reform, but the torpedo-ing of equal health coverage for the poor by calling it ‘socialized medicine’ is nothing new,” John Stowers, a north-suburban business school teacher told me last week. “Harry Truman tried universal coverage and was skunked waaay back in the day.”

You can learn about the failures of past health care reform plans (Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Carter, Ford, George H.W. Bush and Clinton) in the succinctly written essay “Health care reform has a long history of failure” by Sheila Guilloton, a health insurance expert, here.

Stowers, though, was kind enough to send me a lovely quote from Harry S. Truman’s memoir (volume 2) “Years of Trial and Hope” and I share it with you here:

“I have never been able to understand all the fuss some people make about government wanting to do something to improve and protect the health of the people. I usually find that those who are loudest in protesting against medical help by the federal government are those who do not need help. But the fact is that a large portion of our population cannot afford to pay for proper medical and hospital care.

As early as I can remember I have been troubled by seeing so many sick people unable to get the care they need because they and the community lack the means, not only the sick who are so poor that they must depend upon charity, but the average American family that cannot afford to pay for the high cost of modern medical care (pg 17).”

Stowers added this final quote from that same book, perhaps predicting the outcome of Obama’s current campaign, “The same false charge of ‘socialized medicine’ was used to discredit the program and to confuse and mislead the people (pg 21).”

As for the book on my shelf – it’s actually hollow and contains the only successful form of socialized medicine ever invented: a pint of Jim Beam and two shot glasses.

Submitted to The Federal Observer for republication by the author.

~ The Author ~
Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2009. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com