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{
    "localId": "201513",
    "label": "Letter from Harry S. Truman to Sam Roberts",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/201513"
}

{
    "id": "201513",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/201513",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letter from Harry S. Truman to Sam Roberts",
    "description": "This is President Harry S. Truman's letter in response to a letter from his friend, Dr. Sam Roberts, in which Roberts reported on his recent visit to the United Kingdom, described what he saw as the disastrous British experiment with socialism under Prime Minister Clement Attlee, and urged the President not to support a British-style program of national health insurance in the United States. In his reply, Truman emphasizes that the British should be left to manage their own affairs. With regard to his health care proposals, he argues that he is concerned primarily with the welfare of middle-class Americans, not the wealthy who can afford the best care or the poor whose needs can be met through charity. Expressing his concerns about exorbitant medical charges and the effects of poor health care on young Americans, Truman invites doctors to come up with a remedy to the situation themselves.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/201513",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Personal Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972",
        "Correspondence"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/arcmedia/media/images/29/3/29-0300a.TIF",
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    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/201513",
    "naId": 201513,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 8,
            "logicalDate": "1949-09-08",
            "month": 9,
            "year": 1949
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/arcmedia/media/images/29/3/29-0300a.TIF",
    "mediaId": "c2b67be303d92c6c",
    "ocrText": "Gusonal\n$\nSeptember 8, 1949\nU.S.\nSERVICES AND\nLIBRARY\nGOVERNMENT\nDear Sam:\nI read your letter of September first with a lot of interest. You\nevidently got an immense amount of political information in the\ntwo and one-half months you were in Britain and it is most inter-\nesting. I have many reports on the situation in Great Britain and\nI have come to the conclusion that the British have always handled\ntheir internal affairs to their own satisfaction and I propose to let\nthem continue to do it. We have never been in complete agreement\nwith them on anything. That disagreement started in 1776. If you\nremember fundamentally, however, our basic ideas are not far\napart - they gave us our fundamental and basic law and have been\nour allies in nearly every war we have fought since 1860. You\nmust remember they have been through two of the most terrible\nexperiences in the history of the world - experiences which cost\nthem the young men of two generations. Had our losses been in\nproportion we would have lost between twelve and fifteen million\nof our young men. Try to contemplate what that would mean to\nthis country.\nI note carefully what you say about Mercy Hospital and the General\nHospital. I am not worried about that end of the population nor am\nI worried about those who make $25,000 a year and over. The health\nof the people between those two extremes is what is most important\nto the country and when we find 34% of our young men and women\nunfit for military service because of physical and mental defects,\nthere is something wrong with the health of the country and I am\ntrying to find a remedy for it. When it comes to the point where\na man getting $2400.00 a year has to pay $500.00 for prenatal care\nand then an additional hospital bill on top of that there is something\nwrong with the system. Before I get out of this office I am going to\nfind out what is wrong and 1 am going to try and remedy it. I'd sug-\ngest you Doctors had better be hunting for a remedy yourselves un-\nless you want a drastic one.\nSincerely yours,\nDr. Sam E. Roberts\nHARRY S. TRUMA\n1110 Professional Building\nKansas City, Missouri"
}