Campaigning for Good Health

1945 - Institutional Event

 The state commission’s proposal was designed to relieve the acute shortage of doctors and nurses in North Carolina. But passing legislation to fund it required public support. So in 1945, state  leaders  organized a public relations campaign for what they called The Good HealthPlan.

With the help of well-known bandleader Kay Kyser and singers Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore, a song was recorded to promote the Plan. “It’s All Up To You” included these unusual lyrics:

Spread the health alarm
To every town and farm,
And preach the good health view.
It’s all up to you, it’s all up to you.
You’ll find being healthy
Means more than a well-filled hearse.
What good’s being wealthy
When you can’t buy a doctor or a nurse.
When the job is done,
We’ll wind up number one.

Actress Ava Gardner and comedian Red Skelton also donated their talents to help promote The Good Health Plan.

State efforts to improve health care received a major boost from a new federal law passed in 1946. The Hill-Burton Act provided federal grants and guaranteed loans to improve the country’s hospital facilities. By allocating money to states to achieve a rate of 4.5 hospital beds per 1,000 residents, the Act launched a nationwide health care building boom. In North Carolina, it helped fund badly needed hospitals in underserved rural areas. Together with the state’s Good Health Plan, it paid for 7,200 more hospital beds over the next five years, as well as the first four-year, state-supported medical school and teaching hospital at UNC.

Information provided by BCBSNC.

A critical shortage of hospitals led to North Carolina’s Good Health Plan and passage of the Hill-Burton Act.

Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore sang for North Carolina’s Good Health Plan in a major PR campaign.

The result of statewide efforts: a new four-year medical school and teaching hospital at UNC in Chapel Hill.