1940's Medicine and Health | "Text of Truman Plea for Public Health Program"

Speech

By: Harry S. Truman

Date: May 19, 1947

Source: Truman, Harry S. "Text of Truman Plea for Public Health Program." Reprint of Truman's speech in The New York Times, May 19, 1945.

About the Author: President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) was born in Missouri. After serving as a U.S. senator and later as vice president during Franklin D. Roosevelt's final term, Truman became president in April 1945, and served in that office until 1953. He had backed Roosevelt in his New Deal policies during the 1930s and proposed his own "Fair Deal" legislation in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Introduction

The first crusade for some sort of national health insurance began around the beginning of the twentieth century. It was the product of the Progressive movement, a political reform effort whose backers sought to reduce, if not eliminate, social inequities caused by...