The Sad Case of Waiting Room Willie

In 1949/1950, President Harry S Truman proposed a national healthcare system, and the plan was to insure that all communities, regardless of their size or income level, had access to doctors and hospitals. Both the AMA and local medical societies objected to this proposal, saying it was a form of socialized medicine at best, or a Communist system of medicine, at worst. AMA members were charged $25 per person to help fight the nationalized medicine program. You can read a bit more about it here.

To publicize their opposition to the “common man”, the Baltimore City Medical Society, a component of MedChi, published a comic book entitled, “The Sad Case of Waiting Room Willie” in which poor Willie thinks that nationalized medicine sounds great until he gets sick.

The comic book outlines what the government proposes, and then goes on to tell the sad story of Waiting Room Willie.

What’s so amusing is that this is exactly what’s happening right now with the Affordable Care Act.

At the end of the magazine, there’s a form letter for readers to copy and send to their congressmen and senators.

Some things never change!