We wrote last week on a public opinion poll about attitudes toward health reform, and some of the history of failed health reform attempts going back to the Truman administration. We promised to post the comments of long-time health warrior Max Fine, who was in the audience at that event, as he looked back to that era and ahead to the challenges of our own. Also here's the promised  transcript for that Kaiser Family Foundation forum. (pages 48-50 for Fine):

"Hi. I'm Max Fine. I was around during the Truman era....I'm the sole survivor of President Kennedy's Medicare taskforce and we decided early on after the Truman defeat that we had to have a confluence of four forces if we were to enact Medicare.

First and foremost, the President of the United States had to make it his highest priority for a period of time.

Secondly, we did have the support of the key leaders of Congress, the chairman of the Ways and Means and Finance committees.

Thirdly, we had to have the large national organizations, the church groups and the labor groups, and the civil rights groups, and the civic groups. They had to give it their high priority.

Fourth and most importantly, we had to have their grassroots members pounding on the doors of the members of Congress when they're at home. By the way, AARP was one of our strongest opponents. They were run by Colonial Penn Insurance Company at the time. We had to start our own national senior organization, the National Council of Senior Citizens. We had members in every state. Wilbur Mills finally came along, they pounded on his door ...

We're going to have to have the same kind of organization. This President [Obama] has said the right things. He's going to start now with taking the money back from the HMOs and Medicare, that 13-percent extra we're paying them...That's a start. It's more money but unless we have the same kind of organization we developed for Medicare, we're not going to get any of these things. Thanks."