« Summary of what's in the new health care reform pacakge. | Main | 74% of Americans DID NOT contact their Senator or Congressperson during the recent Health Care debate. »

This is fascinating...

You will not believe the piece of legislation that our second president, John Adams, signed into law in 1798:

Our Founders realized that a healthy work force was essential to our economic health and growth. It was for this reason that, in July of 1798, Congress passed, and President John Adams signed into law an act "For the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen," (.pdf of the original document) establishing the Marine Hospital Service.

This Federal government socialized health care insurance was funded by a tax that was withheld from the sailor's pay, and then turned over to the government by the ship's owner. This first payroll tax amounted to slightly over 1% of the sailor's wages. An injured or sick sailor would make a claim, his record of payments would be confirmed, and he would be given a "chit" for admission to the local hospital. Some of these health care facilities were private, but in the larger ports Federal maritime hospitals were built.

So none other than John Adams thought that socialized health care was good for a young America. And yet now in 2010, a single-payer health care system is out of the question. Perhaps this new health care bill will put us back on track to get back to the vision of what our Founding Fathers wanted for us.

The United States Marine Hospital, Chelsea, Mass.

Here's the original text of the bill from our fifth Congress:

CHAP. LXXVII -- An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled - That from and after the first day of September next, the master or owner of every ship or vessel of the United States, arriving from a foreign port into any port of the United States, shall, before such ship or vessel shall be admitted to an entry, render to the collector a true account of the number of seamen, that shall have been employed on board such vessel since she was last entered at any port in the United States,-and shall pay to the said collector, at the rate of twenty cents per month for every seaman so employed; which sum he is hereby authorized to retain out of the wages of such seamen.

Name (required)
Email
Website
Remember personal info? Yes   No
Comments

home | music | democracy | earth | money | projects | about | contact

Site design by Matthew Fries | © 2003-23 Consilience Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Consilience Productions, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are fully tax deductible.