The healthcare and insurance industries, and all of us as healthcare consumers, are experiencing the birth pangs of the difficult roll out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The natural inclination is to view the PPACA as unique in its scope, impact and political implications. But such a view is myopic, for the road to healthcare reform in America is well traveled. Every American presidential administration following the end of World War II has, to some extent, proposed or supported changes to the healthcare system in this country. And many of those previous reforms have been eerily similar to some of the provisions in the PPACA.

This is not the first time the nation has debated controversial healthcare reform proposals. This is not the first time bitter partisan politics have complicated, and sometimes obfuscated, attempts at reform. Some attempts at healthcare reform have succeeded and some have failed, and the political process has often been ugly and divisive.

To read more about this topic, please see full article below here.