HEALTH DEBATE 1952: Truman vs. Ike Proves Little Change in Philosophies

November 11, 2013
By: Dave Rogers

Everybody knows progressives have for decades tried to get universal health care.

But the 1952 arguments by Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower echo strangely as though they just occurred.

"Truman Urges Health Guards: Favors Medicine at Price People Can Pay," reads the headline in The Bay City Times of 16 September 1952.

As the 1952 Presidential campaign pitting Republican Ike vs. Democrat Truman, the debate turned to . . . what else, health care.

Eisenhower had stated his stand against any "federally-operated compulsory health insurance program." Ike remarked that the country's health problems could be handled by "voluntary means" and "locally indigent medical care."

The GOP candidate asserted such a federal health program as advocated by Truman would result in "regimented, assembly-line treatment" with "less and poorer medical care for more."

Calling Ike's stand on health care "horse and buggy" ideas, then President Truman barked: "That's like saying we don't need any form of social security except the county poor house."

The newspaper article from United Press (long defunct wire service) stated: "Truman avoided mentioning any form of national health insurance such as he has advocated but defended his position that the government should help people meet medical expenses."

Without assigning blame for high health care costs, Truman commented that "these costs have to be met somehow if we want to reap the blessing of medical research in the relief of human suffering."

The Democratic candidate noted the government was bound by the constitution to promote the general welfare of its citizens.

Calling the Republicans "pullbacks," Truman said "they just don't want to move ahead at all, no matter how it's done. They just want to stand still, with things as they are, or even move backward."

He denied that it is "socialism" for the government to "help make it possible for every American to protect his health."

Do these arguments sound familiar even though they were forwarded some 61 years ago?

Of course, Ike and Richard Nixon won that election over Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman, Truman having declined to seek renomination; but the debate over health care was destined to continue until the present day, even with overwhelming need, an adopted bill and a Supreme Court decision in favor. Sadly, it is not settled yet, and millions of Americans still fall in the category Truman described as "human suffering."

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