The Ways and Means of National Health Care Reform, 1974 and Beyond

Little attention has been paid in the health policy and welfare state literature to the politics of health care reform in the 1970s. Drawing on newspaper accounts and archival material collected from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and the National Archives, I outline the political history of health care reform in the 93rd Congress. In doing so, I highlight critical institutional, environmental, and strategic lessons that today's reformers can learn from the experience of 1974.