Editing Medicare (United States) (section)

==History==
[[File: Lyndon Johnson signing Medicare bill, with Harry Truman, July 30, 1965.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|right|[[Lyndon B. Johnson]] signing the Medicare amendment (July 30, 1965). Former president [[Harry S. Truman]] (seated) and his wife, [[Bess Truman|Bess]], are on the far right.]]

Originally, the name "Medicare" in the United States referred to a program providing medical care for families of people serving in the military as part of the Dependents' Medical Care Act, which was passed in 1956.<ref>Robinson, P. I. (1957). Medicare: Uniformed Services Program for Dependents. Social Security Bulletin, 20(7), pp. 9–16.</ref> President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] held the first White House Conference on Aging in January 1961, in which creating a health care program for social security beneficiaries was proposed.<ref>Tibbits C. "The 1961 White House Conference on Aging: it's rationale, objectives, and procedures". J Am Geriatr Soc. 1960 May. 8:373–77</ref><ref>Mcnamara PAT, Dirksen EM, Church F, Muskie ES. The 1961 White House Conference on Aging: basic policy statements and recommendations / prepared for the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate 87th Congress, 1st Session, Committee Print, May 15, 1961.</ref>

Various attempts were made in Congress to pass a bill providing for healthcare for the elderly, all without success. In 1963, however, a bill providing for both Medicare and an increase in Social Security benefits passed the Senate by 68-20 votes. As noted by one study, this was the first time that either chamber “had passed a bill embodying the principle of federal financial responsibility for health coverage, however limited it may have been.” There was uncertainty over whether this bill would pass the House, however, as White House aide Henry Wilson's tally of House members’ votes on a conference bill that included Medicare “disclosed 180 “reasonably certain votes for Medicare, 29 “probable/possible,” 222 “against,” and 4 seats vacant.”<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LPXaAAAAMAAJ&dq=This+marked+the+first+time+that+a+chamber+had+passed+a+bill+embodying+the+principle+of+federal+financial+responsibility+for+health+coverage,&pg=PA133 Chronic Politics Health Care Security from FDR to George W. Bush, By Philip J. Funigiello, 2005, p. 133].</ref> Following the 1964 elections however, pro-Medicare forces obtained 44 votes in the House and 4 in the Senate.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YEYNpBFHqxMC&dq=The+turning+point+for+Medicare+came+on+November+3,+1964&pg=PA186 Crisis in Health Care, an Overview Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, May 5, 1983, Volume 4, By United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Aging. Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care, 1983, p.186].</ref> In July 1965,<ref>{{cite news |title=Medicare Bill Signed By Johnson: 33 Congressmen Attend Ceremony In Truman Library |first=Edward T. |last=Folliard |author-link=Edward T. Folliard |newspaper=The Washington Post |date= July 31, 1965 |page=A1 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/142611149/ }}</ref> under the leadership of President [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]], Congress enacted Medicare under Title XVIII of the [[Social Security Act of 1965|Social Security Act]] to provide health insurance to people age 65 and older, regardless of income or medical history.<ref>{{cite news |title= What Medicare Means to Taxpayers: How to Get Voluntary Insurance |first= Drew |last=Pearson |author-link=Drew Pearson (journalist) |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 29, 1965 |page=C13 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/142602859/ }}</ref><ref>See Health Insurance for the Aged Act, Title I of the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89-97, 79 Stat. 286 (July 30, 1965), generally effective beginning with the month of July 1966. Section 321 of the Act amended section 1401 of the [[Internal Revenue Code]] to impose the Medicare tax.</ref> Johnson signed the [[Social Security Amendments of 1965]] into law on July 30, 1965, at the [[Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum|Harry S. Truman Presidential Library]] in [[Independence, Missouri]]. Former [[President of the United States|president]] [[Harry S. Truman]] and his wife, former [[First Lady of the United States|first lady]] [[Bess Truman]] became the first recipients of the program.<ref>{{cite web |title=Truman Library – July 30, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson Signs Medicare Bill |url=https://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/medicarebill.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527201512/https://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/medicarebill.htm |archive-date=May 27, 2019 |access-date=April 2, 2017 |website=Trumanlibrary.org}}</ref>

Before Medicare was created, approximately 60% of people over the age of 65 had health insurance (as opposed to about 70% of the population younger than that), with coverage often unavailable or unaffordable to many others, because older adults paid more than three times as much for health insurance as younger people. Many of this group (about 20% of the total in 2022, 75% of whom were eligible for all Medicaid benefits) became "dual eligible" for both Medicare and Medicaid (which was created by the same 1965 law). In 1966, Medicare spurred the [[racial integration]] of thousands of waiting rooms, hospital floors, and physician practices by making payments to health care providers conditional on [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregation]].<ref>{{citation |author=Study Panel on Medicare and Disparities |title=Strengthening Medicare's Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities |date=October 2006 |work=National Academy of Social Insurance |editor-last=Vladeck |editor-first=Bruce C. |url=http://www.nasi.org/sites/default/files/research/Strenthening%20Medicare's%20Role%20In%20Reducing.pdf |access-date=July 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029203622/https://www.nasi.org/sites/default/files/research/Strenthening%20Medicare%27s%20Role%20In%20Reducing.pdf |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |url-status=dead |isbn=978-1-884902-47-5 |editor2-last=Van de Water |editor2-first=Paul N. |editor3-last=Eichner |editor3-first=June}}, p. 17.</ref>

Medicare has undergone several major changes since 1965; provisions have expanded to include benefits for speech, physical, and chiropractic therapy in 1972.<ref name="medicare.gov, 2012">medicare.gov, 2012.</ref> In the 1970s the option of payments to [[health maintenance organizations]] (HMOs) was added<ref name="medicare.gov, 2012" /> and in 1982, [[hospice]] benefits to aid elderly people on a temporary basis,<ref name="medicare.gov, 2012" /> which was made permanent in 1984.

Congress further expanded Medicare in 2001 to cover younger people with [[amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]] (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease). As the years progressed, Congress expanded Medicare eligibility to younger people with permanent disabilities who receive [[Social Security Disability Insurance]] (SSDI) payments and to those with [[end-stage renal disease]] (ESRD).

The association with HMOs that began in the 1970s was formalized and expanded under President [[Bill Clinton]] in 1997 as Medicare Part C (although not all Part C health plans sponsors have to be HMOs, about 75% are). In 2003, under President [[George W. Bush]], a [[Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act|Medicare program for covering almost all self-administered prescription drugs]] was passed (and went into effect in 2006) as Medicare Part D.<ref>{{cite web |title=Medicare Modernization Act |url=https://www.ssa.gov/privacy/pia/Medicare%20Modernization%20Act%20(MMA)%20FY07.htm |website=Social Security |access-date=15 May 2020}}</ref>