The history of US national health plans: will these same issues resurface in 2004?

Health care managers are an important aspect of any proposed national health care plan; the implementation of such a plan will change their work lives in significant ways, no matter which type of plan is adopted. It is important to occasionally revisit historical developments, especially when they resurface in the people's consciousness. It appears that health care reform and various national health plan proposals may become an important part of the 2004 election, particularly given the economic concerns today. This article reviews health care plans in a historical perspective, particularly from the time of the 1930s onward, with a special longer look at Clinton's failure to implement a national health plan when the timing for such seemed perfect. Whether an individual manager is a supporter of national health plans or not, this article seeks to educate the manager on past efforts to better understand what may develop in the future.