A fact sheet distributed earlier this year by Obama for America, his presidential campaign, read: “Barack Obama will prevent companies from abusing their monopoly power through unjustified price increases. His plan will force insurers to pay out a reasonable share of their premiums for patient care instead of keeping exorbitant amounts for profits and administration.”

The memo also said Obama would take smaller steps to improve the health of Americans by getting “junk food out of vending machines in schools” and requiring federal programs like Medicaid to cover smoking cessation programs.

Since 2005, Obama has been pitching a healthcare bailout for automakers called “Healthcare for Hybrids.” His legislative deal would give federal money to car manufacturers to pay for up to 10 percent of their workers’ healthcare if automakers put half of the healthcare savings towards increasing production of hybrid cars. As he explained in a September 2005 speech, “By picking up part of the tab for the health care costs of their retirees, we'd be lifting a huge burden off the auto industry so that they'll invest in the technology that will finally reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.”

His bill to enact the plan has only attracted one cosponsor in the Senate: Hillary Clinton.

Obama’s support for universal healthcare dates back to his work in the Illinois state senate. When the Illinois statehouse considered a bill to implement universal health care by seizing profits from tobacco companies, Obama introduced an amendment to the bill that took language from a pastoral letter by the late Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. His amendment contained Bernardin’s line: “Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity, and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person is able to realize that right.”

The bill did not pass.