Health Care Reform and History

And so it’s done — in the House. Health care reform, the dream of presidents going back to Harry Truman and beyond, is headed for reconciliation and the desk of President Barack Obama.
Republicans call it a nightmare. Supporters call it history-making — in the tradition of Social Security and Medicare. By any measure, it is a rare moment of large-scale reform.
Social legislation is never a cakewalk in this country. As the gavel echoes today on health care reform, we’ll look at how this push compared to those that came before.
This hour, On Point: we’re taking the long view on reform.

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for Time magazine.

With us in our studio is Bruce Schulman, professor of 20th-century U.S. history at Boston University and author of, among other books, "Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism."

From Jackson, Miss., we're joined by Robert McElvaine, professor of arts & letters and chair of the history department at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. He's the author of "The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941."

And from Hanover, N.H., is Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.