Health Security Act 1993

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The Health Security Act of 1993 was an ambitious proposal. In President Clinton’s 1993 address to Congress on health care reform, he promised to “[give] every American health security”. The Health Security Act of 1993 was written to mend America’s health care system. After World War II, President Harry S. Truman’s initiatives to provide national health insurance greatly divided the nation and was strongly opposed by the American Medical Association; however, Medicare and Medicaid was established in 1965 which “[covered] retired persons and those on welfare, respectively” (Foster and McCulloch). However, the “remainder of the population was still responsible for paying for its own health care either through employers or out-of-pocket”; consequently,…show more content…
The bill aimed to “guarantee comprehensive and secure health care coverage”, “simplify the healthcare system”, “control the cost of health care”, “promote individual choice among health plans and… providers”, “ensure high quality health care”, and “encourage all individuals to take responsibility for their health care coverage” (Health Security Act of 1993). The bill had ambitious aims and failed to pass. Massive health care reform did not occur in the nineties, thus “the number of uninsured [individuals] increased from 37 million individuals to 45 million individuals” between 1992 to 1996 (Spitz). Consequently, other bills, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, State Children's Health Insurance Program of 1997, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 were passed to address health care reform ("Insurance”; "American"; "ASTHO"). The nation did want reform, however the bill did not pass. The Health Security Act of 1993 proposed by the Clinton administration failed as a result of partisanship in the House of Representatives and negative advertisements created mostly by the Health Insurance Association of America that demonized the bill; the factors stated above all caused public opinion to dislike the policy as

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