47 million persons (15.8 percent of the population)
in 2006. While the percentage of uninsured children
declined steadily between 1998 and 2004 from a
high of 15.4 percent to a low of 10.4 percent, it rose
to 11.2 percent in 2006; between 2001 and 2004,
the percentage of insured persons in employer-
sponsored health plans declined from 62.7 percent
to 59.5 percent. Health care reform to reduce costs
and shrink if not eliminate uninsured rates was part
of the presidential debates throughout 2008.
Further Reading
Clinton, William J. “Address to a Joint Session of the
Congress on Health Care Reform, September 22,
1993.”Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents
29, no. 38 (September 27, 1993): 1836-1846. The
president announces and outlines the Health Se-
curity Plan.
Feldman, Roger D., ed.American Health Care: Govern-
ment, Market Processes, and the Public Interest. New
Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 2000. This collec-
tion of essays examines changes in health care de-
livery in the 1990’s in light of related legislation.
Hacker, Jacob S.The Road to Nowhere: The Genesis of
President Clinton’s Plan for Health Security. Prince-
ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997. Details
how the complex idea of managed competition
came to occupy a prominent place in the Clinton
administration’s health security plan.
Skocpol, Theda.Boomerang: Clinton’s Health Security
Effort and the Turn Against Government in U.S. Poli-
tics. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. Describes the
mobilization of antistatist political forces that de-
feated the Health Security bill between 1992 and
1994.
Smith, David G. Entitlement Politics: Medicare and
Medicaid, 1995-2001. New York: Aldine de Gruyter,
- Examines the politics behind legislative ini-
tiatives targeting Medicare and Medicaid spend-
ing between 1995 and 2001.
Richard K. Caputo
See also Armey, Dick; Balanced Budget Act of
1997; Canada and the United States; Clinton, Bill;
Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Conservatism in U.S. poli-
tics; Contract with America; Elections in the United
States, midterm; Family and Medical Leave Act of
1993; Gingrich, Newt; Health care; Medicine; Phar-
maceutical industry; Poverty; Social Security reform;
Welfare reform.
Heaven’s Gate mass suicide
The Event Thirty-nine members of the Heaven’s
Gate cult commit suicide
Date March 23-25, 1997
Place Rancho Santa Fe, California
As Comet Hale-Bopp approached Earth, thirty-nine mem-
bers of the Heaven’s Gate cult, led by Marshall Applewhite,
committed suicide, believing that they would be transported
into the cosmos to reunite with a spaceship from the “level be-
yond human” traveling behind the comet.
Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles met in
1972 at a hospital in Houston, Texas, where Nettles
worked as a nurse. Applewhite had recently lost his
position as the music director at the University of St.
Thomas, and his wife had earlier left him because of
several homosexual affairs. The loss of his job and
ambivalence over his sexuality made him depressed.
Nettles was active in New Age thought, including
spiritualism and astrology. When she met Apple-
white, her marriage was also dissolving. The two be-
came inseparable, although their relationship was
described as strictly platonic.Ti and Do Begin Their Mission Both of them had
been hearing voices from unidentified flying objects
(UFOs), which persuaded them that they had a des-The Nineties in America Heaven’s Gate mass suicide 413
In 2008, the Heaven’s Gate Web site was still accessi-
ble and included a statement, excerpted here, regard-
ing the religious group’s view of suicide:The true meaning of “suicide” isto turn against
the Next Level when it is being offered. In these last
days, we are focused on two primary tasks:
one—of making a last attempt at telling the
truth about how the Next Level may be en-
tered (our last effort at offering to individuals
of this civilization the way to avoid “suicide”);
and two—taking advantage of the rare oppor-
tunity we have each day—to work individually
on our personal overcoming and change, in
preparation for entering the Kingdom of
Heaven.Heaven’s Gate on Suicide