Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: Richard Nixon's Plan for Universal Health Care
In October of 2013, former Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein was a guest on the Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Asked about the role of the Republican party in the then current US government shutdown because of their objection to the Affordable Care Act, Stein said that his old boss, Richard Nixon, had proposed similar legislation and Stein had written a speech for Nixon in support of such a proposal. In fact during Nixon's tenure in office, a number of unsuccessful attempts were taken to pass a universal national health insurance scheme.
In 1970, three separate proposals for universal national health insurance were introduced in Congress, each proposed to be financed by payroll taxes and general federal revenues. The first was proposed in February when Representative Martha Griffiths, a Democrat from Michigan, introduced a national health insurance bill. Her proposal was one without any cost sharing, based on a model developed by the AFL-CIO. In April 1970, New York Republican Senator Jacob Javits introduced a bill to extend Medicare to all American. His proposal kept existing Medicare cost sharing and coverage limits. He developed his plan in consultation with Republican New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and former Johnson administration Health Education and Welfare Secretary Wilbur Cohen. In August 1970, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts introduced a bipartisan national health insurance bill, once again without any cost sharing, that was developed in collaboration with the United Auto Workers Committee for National Health Insurance. A corresponding bill was introduced in the House the following month by Representative James Corman, a Democrat from California. In September of 1970, the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee held the first congressional hearings on national health insurance, since the Truman administration.
In January 1971, Senator Kennedy, who was then the chairman of the Health subcommittee of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, introduced a bipartisan bill proposing universal national health insurance. A month later, in February 1971, President Richard Nixon proposed more limited health insurance reform in the form of a private health insurance employer mandate and federalization of Medicaid for the poor with dependent minor children. Hearings on national health insurance were held by the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee in 1971, but no bill could garner enough support to get out of of the Health committee. Opposition came from Democratic Congressman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas and Democratic Senator Russell Long of Louisiana.
In October 1972, Nixon signed the Social Security Amendments of 1972 which extended Medicare to those under 65 who have been severely disabled for over two years or who had end stage renal disease. The amendments gradually raised the Medicare Part A payroll tax from 1.1% to 1.45% in 1986.
In November 1972, Nixon won re-election in a landslide over Senator George McGovern, but national health insurance was not a major campaign issue.
In October 1973, Long and Democratic Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut introduced a bipartisan bill for catastrophic health insurance coverage for workers financed by payroll taxes and federalization of Medicaid with extension to the poor without dependent minor children. In February 1974, Nixon proposed more comprehensive health insurance reform. Nixon proposed an employer mandate to offer private health insurance and replacement of Medicaid by state-run health insurance plans available to all with income-based premiums and cost sharing. In April 1974, Kennedy and Mills introduced a bill for near-universal national health insurance with benefits identical to the expanded Nixon plan. Both of these proposals were criticized by labor and senior citizens organizations because of their substantial cost sharing.
Nixon would leave office joining the list of presidents from both parties who had failed to bring about universal health care.