King bill
The King Bill, also known as the King-Anderson Bill, was a precursor to Medicare. It was presented and defeated (in the Senate) in 1962. Cecil R. King and Clinton Anderson were the primary sponsors of the bill. It is believed that the King-Anderson Bill was simply a rehash of the defeated Forand Bill, who's sponsor, Aime Forand had not been re-elected.
Speech Relevance[edit]
The King-Anderson Bill is never mentioned by name in 'Encroaching Control' but it is possible Reagan is speaking of it when he refers to the "other program":
Now, without even waiting to see if that program will work, we find that the proponents of this other program, the once defeated Forand Bill, are pleading that the only you can meet the problem of these ten percent is an overall compulsory program forcing all people into compulsory government insurance above age 65 whether they need it or not.
However, King-Anderson is mentioned in Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine:
Now Congressman Forand is no longer a Congressman of the United States government. He has been replaced, not in the particular assignment, but in his backing of such a bill by Congressman King of California. It is presented in the idea of a great emergency that millions of our senior citizens are unable to provide needed medical care. But this ignores the fact that in the last decade 127 million of our citizens, in just 10 years, have come under the protection of some form of privately owned medical or hospital insurance.
Now the advocates of this bill when you try to oppose it challenge you on an emotional basis and say, "What would you do? Throw these poor people out to die with no medical attention?"
That's ridiculous and of course no one is advocating it. As a matter of fact, in the last session of Congress a bill was adopted known as the Kerr-Mills bill. Now without even allowing this bill to be tried to see if it works, they have introduced this King bill, which is really the Forand Bill.
