MedPage Today January 17, 2026
Reaching consensus remains a challenge
The president was barely a year into his administration when a healthcare debate began to consume Washington.
On Capitol Hill, partisan divides formed as many Democrats pressed for guaranteed insurance coverage for a broader swath of Americans while Republicans, buttressed by medical industry lobbying, warned about cost and a slide into communism.
The year was 1945 and the new Democratic president, Harry Truman, tried and failed to persuade Congress to enact a comprehensive national healthcare program, a defeat Truman described as the disappointment of his presidency that “troubled me the most.” Since then, 13 presidents have struggled with the same basic questions about the government’s role in healthcare, where spending now makes up nearly 18%...
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