I happened onto this little fact by way of Roger Ebert, of “At The Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert” fame, who is now quite the avid and political tweeter recently. And would you believe me if I told you that one of our most important Founding Fathers, President John Adams, signed legislation providing for a health insurance mandate?
In July, 1798, Congress passed, and President John Adams signed into law “An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen,” authorizing the creation of a marine hospital service, and mandating privately employed sailors to purchase healthcare insurance.
This legislation also created America’s first payroll tax, as a ship’s owner was required to deduct 20 cents from each sailor’s monthly pay and forward those receipts to the service, which in turn provided injured sailors hospital care. Failure to pay or account properly was discouraged by requiring a law violating owner or ship’s captain to pay a 100 dollar fine.
Given that many of the critics of the Health Insurance Reform law based their constitutional challenges on the provisions mandating the purchase of insurance, this little known fact may signal their prospects of success in the courts, which is none.