1938

FDR’s “Report on the Health needs of the Nation” recommended expansion of public health and maternal/child health services under Social Security Act; also new systems of federal grants to states for hospital construction, subsidy of state programs for medically needy, and state programs of general medical care. AMA’s House of Delegates, in a special session, reiterated opposition to establishment of any form of compulsory health insurance (Stevens, 193). Strengthening of FDA and FTC “constitute the most important health-related legislation passed during the New Deal. While other developed nations such as Canada and Great Britain moved decisively toward programs of national health insurance during the 1930s, Americans moved instead to strengthen the individual consumer’s protections within the marketplace of health-related goods. Perhaps because they appeared less ideological and more pro-market, arguments rooted in the need for consumer protection and ‘getting one’s money worth’ proved much more effective than those couched in the language of social justice and citizen entitlements” (Tomes I, 541).