White House responded with legislation of its own. In a message to Congress on February 18, 1971, President Nixon proposed the National Health Insurance Partnership Act of 1971, one of the most important of the many proposals put forward at that time (U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Ways and Means, 1971b). There is some feeling that Nixon 's action came out of his fear of the possibility of a Kennedy candidacy for the presidency the following year (Rettig, 1977).

Reflecting this interest in national health insurance, the House Ways and Means Committee, after passing H.R. 1 in the summer of 1971, held 21 days of hearings in October and November on national health insurance proposals, including that of the administration (U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Ways and Means, 1971a). In February 1972, the administration submitted extensive amendments to its original proposal (U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Ways and Means, 1972). In the Senate, although Finance Committee Chairman Long did not favor comprehensive health insurance measures, he did advocate insurance against the catastrophic costs of health care, indicating the broad interest in expansion of the existing Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The legislative agenda in 1971 and 1972, however, was dominated by H.R. 1, not by national health insurance. This legislation, as noted earlier, dealt with social security, Medicare, and welfare reform. Perhaps the bill's most important amendment to Medicare, marking its most significant expansion since 1965, was the extension of Medicare coverage to the disabled. President Lyndon Johnson had proposed such an extension in 1967, two years after Medicare had been enacted, but then it was regarded as too soon to be seriously considered. In 1970, however, it had been part of the bill that failed enactment for procedural reasons. Its passage in 1972 was a foregone conclusion.

The Senate Finance Committee first considered H.R. 1 in July and August 1971, as soon as the bill was sent over by the House (U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Finance, 1971). These hearings were limited to administration witnesses and focused mainly on the family assistance plan. Senator Long noted with asperity that two-thirds of the bill consisted of Senate amendments adopted in 1970. He noted that the most controversial feature of the legislation was the welfare reform proposal of the administration, as modified by the House.

The Senate committee resumed hearings again in January and February 1972, and the opening statements of Long and Ribicoff foreshadowed the welfare reform deadlock mentioned above (U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Finance, 1972a). That deadlock, and the ensuing controversy and behind-the-scenes negotiations, delayed Senate action on the bill until members had returned to Washington from the summer recess.