“Son, Let’s Not Be Too Dogmatic About This”
President Kennedy’s policies, including what came to be known as “Medicare,” went under the umbrella term “New Frontier.” In 1962, most insurers did not cover people older than sixty-five, many of whom were too poor to pay for private care. Initially Republicans resisted Medicare, but by May 1962, when the off-year election campaign began to heat up, some began to compromise. Medicare did not become law until 1965. Herblock portrays the Republican Party elephant as sick and elderly, intimating that aging congressmen had accepted the need for the law.
President Kennedy’s policies, including what came to be known as “Medicare,” went under the umbrella term “New Frontier.” In 1962, most insurers did not cover people older than sixty-five, many of whom were too poor to pay for private care. Initially Republicans resisted Medicare, but by May 1962, when the off-year election campaign began to heat up, some began to compromise. Medicare did not become law until 1965. Herblock portrays the Republican Party elephant as sick and elderly, intimating that aging congressmen had accepted the need for the law.