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.& And these profes-sions can rest assured that the Federal Administration contemplates actiononly in their interest.I mention, just in passing, the splendid Social SecurityAct recently enacted by the Congress.That action taken in the field of healthis clear.& For that Act & contains four provisions that are very often forgot-ten, especially in the heat of a political campaign.Those four provisions haveto do with health, and those provisions received the support of outstandingDoctors during the hearings before the Congress.& This in itself assures theNation that the health plans will be carried out in a manner compatible withour traditional social and political institutions.& Let me add that the Actcontains every precaution for insuring the support and cooperation of theMedical and Nursing profession.& The overwhelming majority of the Doc-tors of the Nation want medicine kept out of politics.On occasions in thepast attempts have been made to put medicine into politics.Such attemptshave always failed and always will fail.52Not surprisingly, the president s talk one of the only speeches hewould make during his presidency that was devoted entirely to healthcare received thunderous applause from the AMA, which printed aglowing editorial about the speech in the Journal of the American MedicalAssociation.The political usefulness of the speech became clear immediately.On October 7, 1936, reacting to a letter from Dr.L.D.Redway, thechairman of the Public Relations Committee of the Medical Societyof the County of Westchester, Stephen Early, sent a note to McIntire: 40 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Doctor McIntire: Here is the Westchester letter with a copy of theJersey City address.& Do you want to fix up an answer for us or shallwe do it? McIntire replied in handwriting: Suggest you write a letterquoting paragraph marked # and stating this should be an answer toanyone for no legislation is contemplated. 53Indeed, for the rest of Roosevelt s presidency, whenever he receivedan inquiry from physicians about his attitude toward socialized medi-cine, state medicine, or any similar hot-button term, his staff wouldreply by citing the 1936 assurance that physicians can rest assuredthat the Federal Administration contemplates action only in their inter-est. Certainly, this meant the end of universal health insurance underRoosevelt s tenure in the Oval Office at least for now.amazing public support techniciansworking with all speed: 1937 1940In a Roosevelt presidency nothing was ever quite as it appeared.Thiswas a president who kept his options open.And so he let the issue ofhealth insurance stay alive but deep beneath the surface, with no presi-dential commitment to bringing it into view.The result was a secondgo-around on universal coverage that, even as the CES initiative wasfading, started to rise under the auspices of an entity with the numb-ingly bureaucratic title of the Interdepartmental Committee to Coordi-nate Health and Welfare Activities.The Interdepartmental Committee s health care initiative had itsorigin, somewhat improbably, in a letter from Cushing to Rooseveltwritten on November 10, 1934, as the neurosurgeon was preparingto leave New Haven for Washington to lunch with the president.Theletter contained a suggestion that seemed intended to rescue (or divert)the MAC from an anticipated clash over sickness insurance: BeforeMr.Witte s Medical Advisory Committee gets deep in this tangled sub-ject [of sickness insurance], would it not be a good move just at this timeto take into consideration the establishment if not of a governmentaldepartment at least of a super-bureau of public health to coordinatea number of welfare agencies? & There will be difficulties about such aconcentration, but you are accustomed to overcoming difficulties, andsuch a favourable opportunity as the present may not occur again. 54As he wrote back on November 13 and probably told Cushing atlunch the same day Roosevelt said that he liked the idea but doubtedthat the time was wholly ripe. The difficulty, said the rueful bureaucrat The Enigmatic Angler 41in chief, is that shuffling bureaus between existing departments raisesmuch ruction. However, he forwarded the letter to Perkins the sameday, asking whether they should set up an interdepartmental committeeof coordination of the existing health and welfare activities. 55 Perkinsreplied dutifully that she would discuss the matter with her colleagues, butit was not until May 2, 1935, that she responded: there was no need fora super-bureau of the type Cushing suggested, but it would be useful tohave a committee coordinating federal health and welfare agencies.Thecommittee should consist of technically trained persons, to study andmake recommendations concerning specific aspects of the government shealth activities. Wary, like FDR, of provoking physicians, Perkins addedthat the committee would recognize professional interests. 56In a first rush of enthusiasm, Roosevelt scribbled on Perkins s memo: I hope you will issue this at once. 57 But then he thought better ofthrowing another issue however tangential into the Social Securitymaelstrom.On May 8, he wrote Perkins more formally: I think thisis a good idea to be developed during the summer (read: once SocialSecurity is safely home).Will you let me have the kind of endorse-ment which I can send to the other Departments? 58 When Perkinsresponded, Roosevelt told her to wait until after the signing of theSocial Security Act
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