AMA Launches Operation Coffee Cup with Reagan Recording to Defeat Medicare Through Grassroots Deception

The American Medical Association launches Operation Coffee Cup in 1961, funding a sophisticated astroturf campaign to defeat Medicare by distributing a long-play record featuring a young Ronald Reagan outlining the dangers of “socialized medicine” to the Women’s Auxiliary of the AMA—a group primarily composed of doctors’ wives. The campaign instructs these women to host coffee mornings in their homes, play Reagan’s recording for guests, and then have attendees immediately write “seemingly spontaneous” letters to Congress detailing their opposition to Medicare. The hosts are advised to have paper, pens, envelopes, and stamps ready “so attendees could write their letters there and then while ‘in the mood,’” ensuring the letters appear to embody general public sentiment rather than an orchestrated lobbying campaign.

The wives receive explicit warnings that the LP is not for general public consumption and certainly not for commercial broadcast—it is vital that the letters appear to be written by concerned individuals rather than part of a coordinated effort when they land on senators’ and representatives’ desks. The campaign represents something of an inside job: although promotional material presents Reagan as a willing volunteer speaking about the evils of socialized medicine, his father-in-law Dr. Loyal Davis serves as president of the AMA. Operation Coffeecup marks Reagan’s initial foray into national politics, and in 1962 he changes his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, launching the political career that eventually leads to the presidency.

The campaign proves devastatingly effective, producing thousands of letters that help narrowly defeat a Medicare bill in the Senate in 1961. The war against Medicare dates back to the 1940s when Harry S. Truman attempted to create national health insurance, encountering well-organized and financed opposition from insurers, large corporations, the American Medical Association, and conservative interests who introduced the phrase “socialized medicine” into the public lexicon through Red-baiting PR campaigns. Following JFK’s assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson pushes through the Social Security Act of 1965 establishing Medicare, albeit a watered-down version of the original program. Operation Coffeecup institutionalizes the attack on “socialized medicine,” helping cement those two words into a single rallying point for the nearly 50-year campaign to defeat universal health care in America—a legacy Reagan continues as president by cutting Medicaid funding by more than 18 percent during his first term while reducing the Department of Health and Human Services budget by a quarter.