Into thin air: making national health policy, 1939-45.

Abstract

From 1939-1945, Dr. J. J. Heagerty, the long-serving federal Director of Public Health Services, championed a national health insurance program which united curative and preventive services while avoiding the pitfalls of "state medicine." But his carefully designed plan was stymied by internal and external opposition. As Keynesian economics and central planning became dominant during the war, line departments were ignored or undercut in spite of growing public support for social welfare programs. Instead, health insurance was subsumed in the 1945 reconstruction proposals for political reasons and Heagerty's comprehensive vision foundered when the conference failed.