An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seaman

President John Adams

In 1798, President John Adams signed the United States' first health care reform law -- An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seaman. The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed seamen purchase health care insurance. Attorney and health care journalist Rick Ungar explains the law here. Click here to read it in its entirety (believe it or not, the law is but a little over a page long).