The Constitutional Right to Health Care

During the halcyon days of the populist political movements of the 1960s, much was said about the need for a broad-based program of publicly financed health care for all Americans. After the defeat of legislation to create such a system during the 1960s and 1970s, the idea of national health care received less and less attention. In the more conservative atmosphere of the early 1980s, no serious efforts to establish a national health care plan were advanced. In 1988, however, interest in the subject increased with the enactment of a universal health care bill in one state—Massachusetts. This column examines . . .