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Article: Will the United States ever have universal health care?(National Health Line)
- Article from:
- Health and Social Work
- Article date:
- November 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 National Association of Social Workers. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The profession of social work has long been linked with efforts for health care reform. At the dawn of the 20th century, Jane Addams, Lillian Wald, and others advocated reforms to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in urban areas and raised concern about high rates of infant mortality. During the 1930s Frances Perkins, a settlement house worker, became secretary of labor and advocated compulsory universal health insurance. Social workers also played central roles in the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid, and during the 1990s, NASW developed its own legislative proposal for national health care, which Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) introduced in 1992 (Moniz & Gorin, ...