Carter was gone by the time the song was written, or at least on his way out; Reagan had taken office. With that in mind, it is more likely the songs lines such as "it's sick, the price of medicine" deal with a Republican opposition to Health Care Reform as with The Carter Administration's failure to impliment a national Health Care System.
Bare in mind this song was written 7 years before I was born AND I'm British, so if I have this all wrong then apologies.
@jamesisnose One minor correction, on health care: Reagan wasn't opposed to health care reform. In fact, he was the one who wanted to reform the system—but in a disastrous way. He argued that allowing for-profit HMOs and completely deregulating the insurers would let the market magically fix the system. And when he won and implemented his plan, it had exactly the effect Anderson and Bush predicted in the primaries: insurance cartels and provider cartels began colluding, and prices skyrocketed, and they've never stopped.
@jamesisnose One minor correction, on health care: Reagan wasn't opposed to health care reform. In fact, he was the one who wanted to reform the system—but in a disastrous way. He argued that allowing for-profit HMOs and completely deregulating the insurers would let the market magically fix the system. And when he won and implemented his plan, it had exactly the effect Anderson and Bush predicted in the primaries: insurance cartels and provider cartels began colluding, and prices skyrocketed, and they've never stopped.
Carter was gone by the time the song was written, or at least on his way out; Reagan had taken office. With that in mind, it is more likely the songs lines such as "it's sick, the price of medicine" deal with a Republican opposition to Health Care Reform as with The Carter Administration's failure to impliment a national Health Care System.
Bare in mind this song was written 7 years before I was born AND I'm British, so if I have this all wrong then apologies.
@jamesisnose One minor correction, on health care: Reagan wasn't opposed to health care reform. In fact, he was the one who wanted to reform the system—but in a disastrous way. He argued that allowing for-profit HMOs and completely deregulating the insurers would let the market magically fix the system. And when he won and implemented his plan, it had exactly the effect Anderson and Bush predicted in the primaries: insurance cartels and provider cartels began colluding, and prices skyrocketed, and they've never stopped.
@jamesisnose One minor correction, on health care: Reagan wasn't opposed to health care reform. In fact, he was the one who wanted to reform the system—but in a disastrous way. He argued that allowing for-profit HMOs and completely deregulating the insurers would let the market magically fix the system. And when he won and implemented his plan, it had exactly the effect Anderson and Bush predicted in the primaries: insurance cartels and provider cartels began colluding, and prices skyrocketed, and they've never stopped.