when did health care reform began in the united states
History of health care reform in the United States One of the earliest health care proposals at the federal level was the 1854 Bill for the Benefit of the Indigent Insane, which would have established asylums for the indigent insane, as well as the blind and deaf, via federal land grants to the states. This bill was proposed by activist Dorothea Dix and passed both houses of Congress, but was vetoed by president Franklin Pierce. Pierce argued that the federal government should not commit itself to social welfare, which he stated was the responsibility of the states.[1][2]