On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.
At the ceremony, former President Harry Truman, who had proposed national health insurance in 1945, was honored as Medicare’s first beneficiary and received the program’s first Medicare card.
Medicare, an amendment to the Social Security Act of 1935, was designed to provide hospital and medical insurance for Americans aged 65 and older.
When the program began in 1966, approximately 19 million people were enrolled.
In 1972, the program’s eligibility was expanded to include Americans under 65 with specific disabilities and individuals of all ages with permanent kidney disease needing dialysis or a transplant.
In December 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Medicare Modernization Act, which introduced outpatient prescription drug benefits to Medicare.
On the same day in 1965, President Johnson also signed Medicaid into law.
This program, also an amendment to the Social Security Act, provides health coverage to certain low-income individuals and is funded jointly by state and federal governments.
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