Even with all of this federal intervention, however, the issue of Americans being able to afford healthcare would rear its ugly head time and time again in the succeeding decades. This issue would be tossed about like a political hot potato until the election of President Bill Clinton, when then First Lady Hillary Clinton embraced the issue of affordable healthcare for all Americans and made an attempt to institute a nationalized healthcare system, much like the ones that have worked in nations like Canada and Great Britain. The Clintons unfortunately met with intense resistance to the plan on the federal level, and their system never came to full fruition. Ironically, however, the Clintons did manage to make meaningful change in American healthcare through their proposed plan. The mere threat of federal control over the monopolies that many American healthcare companies enjoy led in many cases to the freezing of rates and improvement of services and allowable care on the part of these private companies, so much so that in the present day, America offers some of the best healthcare in the world.
Concessions in Developing the Alternatives
Beyond the advances that the Clinton years of the federal government made in healthcare, it is also important to point out that seeking a consensus on the healthcare issue led to a restoration of many of the divisions that existed in the Democratic Party prior to the call to duty to help on healthcare concerns. The ripple effect of this can also be seen in the reforms of recent years in Medicare coverage, enriching the lives of the countless baby-boomers, whose need for medical care will only increase in the coming years.
Conclusion
As we have seen in the course of this research, American healthcare has in some respects been the barometer of social and economic change in the nation. What the future holds in this arena is anyone's guess, but one thing is clear- the federal government will always have something valuable to contribute to the cause, and should not let political agendas or power grabs jeopardize it.
References
Behreandt,...
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