Excerpt
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the act establishing Medicare in 1965, he presented the first Medicare card to former President Harry Truman, saying, “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine.”
President Johnson probably could not have foreseen the trajectory that the Medicare program would take over the next half century. The program initially covered 19 million people and, by 1970, cost $7.4 billion. In 2010, it covered 47.5 million Americans — including 39.6 million people 65 or older and 7.9 million disabled. Total benefits paid out were…
In This Issue
-
Medicare and the Budget
Seeking Common Ground in a Partisan Political Climate
Read More -
Ending Oil Insutry Tax Breaks
Recent Developments in Congress
Read More -
Republican Budget for Fiscal Year 2012
"The Ryan Plan"
Read More -
Democratic Budget for Fiscal Year 2012
The Minority Alternative
Read More -
Threats to New Consumer Bureau
Recent Developments in Congress
Read More -
The President's Remarks on Fiscal Policy
"The Country We Believe In"
Read More -
The Medicare Debates of 1965, 1995, and 2003
Pros and Cons of Medicare’s Creation and Subsequent Reforms
Read More -
Legislative Background on Medicare and the Budget
Recent Action in Congress
Read More -
Report on Medicare Solvency
Projections by the Board of Trustees
Read More
Pro & Con
Should the House Pass the “Ryan Budget Plan”?
