On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicaid into law along with the Medicare program, which covers senior citizens. Coverage for an adult costs an average of $5,671 a year, 20 percent less than the cost of private coverage. Advances in radiation therapy and access to treatments allows many seniors to get their cancer treated effectively, while maintaining their work and lifestyles. Conservatives feared the passage of programs like Social Security and Medicare for the same reasons they feared the passage of health care reform.
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In a recent weekly address, President Obama stated that the Affordable Care Act “finished the job” that Medicare and Medicaid started 50 years ago.
Also before Medicare was enacted, more than one-third of seniors lived in poverty and more than one-fourth went completely without medical care at all due to the cost.
Today marks Medicare’s 50th Anniversary. But the biggest driver by far in reducing the number of uninsured has been the state’s hearty embrace of the law’s Medicaid expansion. Throughout its history, Medicaid has given states enormous flexibility in whom they cover, what benefits they provide, and how they deliver health care services. In the next 25 years, the number of people over 65 eligible for Medicare will more than double. “Until we put patients over profits, our system will not work for ordinary Americans”. “The task ahead for all of us is to keep people healthier while spending smarter across all categories of care delivery so that we can sustain these results”. We need to be sure people get the care they need, in the right setting. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 1999, Medicare served 39.2 million Americans – 14.6 million fewer than it does today.
Driving innovation to shape the next 50 years: Over the course of five decades, Medicare and Medicaid have become the standard-bearers for coverage, quality and innovation in American health care.
But the vast majority of Americans favor plans similar to Medicare and say that they support other programs like it for future health care. The partnership will amount to a pilot aimed at improving care coordination for Medicare and Medicaid enrollees.
As a byproduct of the signing of the ACA, questions surrounding Medicare and Medicaid have grown increasingly complicated and controversial.
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If the significant reductions in payments built into the Affordable Care Act are not all carried out, as the Medicare actuaries have predicted will occur, these financial pressures will come even sooner.
