Kaiser learned very early on that the only stable way to make "big" money was to have large government contracts. Governments generally do not go out of business nor file bankruptcy. They seldom stop payment for poor performance and the most that ever happens to a contractee that knows how to cover his behind with well funded "constructive lobbying" is that he will get a fine. Never does he have to actually pay back all the money owed to the government.

The Kaiser corporations has been marketing to government it's proposals for Universal Health Care programs, which it has wanted to operate, manage and regulate since the end of World War II. There was a good reason that President Truman first refused to get involved with the Kaiser companies. Just as there was a good reason for President Truman to not want Henry Kaiser running for office along side him as had initially been proposed by his advisers. Kaiser had marketed himself very well to the media and had done so since the Hoover Administration. The press was in his pocket just as it is today and he became a "bigger" than life hero - Just as Paris Hilton has paid publicists to get her name and antics in the press nearly every day of the week. Same process - Same old story.

Kaiser and the for profit Permanente have placed online at their KP News Center a brag article about the number of attempts to land the biggest government contract of all at:
http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/leadership/hctimeline.html