History of term When the term "socialized medicine" first appeared in the United States in the early 20th century, it bore no negative connotations. Otto P. Geier, chairman of the Preventive Medicine Section of the American Medical Association, was quoted in The New York Times in 1917 as praising socialized medicine as a way to "discover disease in its incipiency", help end "venereal diseases, alcoholism, tuberculosis", and "make a fundamental contribution to social welfare". However, by the 1930s, the term socialized medicine was routinely used negatively by conservative opponents of publicly funded health care who wished to imply it represented socialism, and by extension, communism. Universal health care and national health insurance were first proposed by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. President Franklin D. Roosevelt later championed it, as did Harry S. Truman as part of his Fair Deal and many others. Truman announced before describing his proposal that: "This is not socialized medicine".
History of term When the term "socialized medicine" first appeared in the United States in the early 20th century, it bore no negative connotations. Otto P. Geier, chairman of the Preventive Medicine Section of the American Medical Association, was quoted in The New York Times in 1917 as praising socialized medicine as a way to "discover disease in its incipiency", help end "venereal diseases, alcoholism, tuberculosis", and "make a fundamental contribution to social welfare". However by the 1930s, the term socialized medicine was routinely used negatively by conservative opponents of publicly funded health care who wished to imply it represented socialism, and by extension, communism. Universal health care and national health insurance were first proposed by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. President Franklin D. Roosevelt later championed it, as did Harry S. Truman as part of his Fair Deal and many others. Truman announced before describing his proposal that: "This is not socialized medicine".