National Archives
LBJ prepares to sign Medicare into law. Former President Harry Truman hands him the pen, as VP Hubert Humphrey, Lady Bird Johnson and Bess Truman look on.
America's single-payer health system — known to all of us as Medicare — turned 47 on Monday.
On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law at the Truman Library in Missouri, where he presented 81-year-old former President Harry Truman with the first Medicare card.
National Archives
Medicare Recipient #1
Former first lady Bess Truman got the second.
National Archives
Medicare Recipient #2
What did Republican opponents, including George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, call Medicare in the early years? Socialized Medicine.
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In the early years, before Medicare's expansion and benefit additions of the past four decades, and the inclusion of large numbers of payroll tax paying supporters to the fund,, a whole class of over 55 citizens were incuded as benificiaries with 0 to precious little payroll tax contibutions paid in and miniscule premiums, meaning it was general tax payer and deficit funded for its first 10 years of existance. Get the picture now, Little Lying Larry?
Exactly as it should be for everyone. The United States is the only industrialized nation which is such a failure that it does not provide proper health care (i.e. regular access to a personal physician) to all of it's permanent residents.
People in other industrialized nation pay 30% to 50% what you do and get much more than you in terms of access and quality than you do if you are so unlucky enough to be an American with insurance-run health care.
The vast majority of industrialized nations not only provide provide regular access to personal physicians for all permanent residents, but provide it as well as anything done in hospitals with no out of pocket cost to the patient or their family.
If you lived in any other industrialized nation, you would pay little or nothing out of pocket and have better access and quality of health care than you have with American insurance run health care now.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/8056/healthcare-system-ratings-us-great-britain-canada.aspx
I for one am glad that Medicare was available right away, as my relatives deserved what they got, they helped build our country from the depths of wwII and the great depression, for people to say they should have simply been thrown out in the streets really shows who is compassionate and who is not.
Jason and John:
From someone who has worked in the health field in both State, Federal, and Non-Profit employments, I can assure you that those who are "out on the steets" i.e the alcohol and drug addicted and mental health suffers that often are penniless and honeless and there by choice because they refuse to follow health regimens are in fact our nations most frequent and highest users of our health care systems.
No one goes without health care in the US...the issues are how best to deliver the health care in a cost efficient and effective manner and how to pay for it.
Grandpa Fuzz's hypothesis is that people who "go crazy" do so by choice.... See what a comfortable reality his denial affords him? Only he has to continually act out by coming here to keep his demons at bay. He'd be looking for a Glock "retirement program" if he actually tried to process anything involving genuine humanity.
He's actually Exhibit A in the defense's case against that one... I'm being charitable; I don't think he can help himself when he behaves like an adolescent jerk, seriously.
Choice eh? Next time you have diarrhea, don't use the commode...
It is sad that some do not think that someone would ever simply be a loser in the game of capitalism. Further sad is that some think that those losers chose to lose
Then there's the voice of sanity:
http://www.history.com/speeches/johnson-signs-medicare-bill-into-law#johnson-signs-medicare-bill-into-law
America has lost its way. We're being driven over a cliff by the T-Party. Reason has gone out the window. It is sad and it is embarrassing to be the only country in the civilized world to prefer bankruptcy from an illness to free socialized health care.
I recall reading, What's The Matter With Kansas? Frank could now, five years later, call the book, What's The Matter With America?
Hello, John Murphy! We miss you over on Ed's blog!
One again, I agree with your comment. Good to hear from you.
Oh I drift in and out often, more often than I comment sometimes.
Seems this story didn't mention the deficits that naturally had to be paid, yeah, t=the highest tax brackets wewre almost 3 times what they are now. And we all know how our country's manufacturing fell into chaos during the 50's to the 70's. And.... SORRY, but I didn't see any LYING except by the raging Keith Longey. But as I remember it, this country got tired of poorhouses, old people on the streets across America, and orphanages, and they decided to take care of their elderly, and children to make life easier. Besides, they looked terrible to all the tourists we were receiving and were getting under the feet of the rich downtown.
Apparently some people aren't going to GET old, poor, or sickly. KUDOS! Please quit bitching about those of us that VOTED to be a more Christian Nation of people who take care of their own.
Thanks, GreenTech, for keeping Grandpa's head down in his FAUX noise hole... I spent at least an hour trying to track down one of his off-the-wall rants--I'm sure it's archived; I just couldn't find it--aimed at me and a reference I made to Medicare in the 1960's... He insisted it was the 70's before we saw it; guy won't Google or get a smart phone, and then insists we're all libtards because we managed to learn some critical thinking skills, read actual news and history, and not Baron Murchausen® propaganda and factually flawed talking points calculated to induce brain freeze.
Anyone who can find the rant and my fact-checking slam dunk can have a free cab ride the next time they visit Planet Utah... Medicare in its first year cost around a billion dollars, as opposed to the 170 billion that the Vietnam War sucked out of our pockets (that 770 billion in today's dollars).
And the news program I remember best from back then was the one about "Poverty in America." That one shook everyone up, particularly the scenes from Appalachia...
For every Canadian to have access to a personal physician and to pay for anything done in hospitals (with no out of pocket cost for any of it) costs the Canadian government $3800 per capita with NO deductibles or copays, yes it's paid by taxes based on income, but the cost per capita is $3800.
For the United States to cover 62% of Americans for physicians and hospital costs (with deductibles and copays) cost Americans $7900 per capita.
Covering 100% of permanent residents for $3800 per capita per year (Canada), or covering 62% of citizens for $7900 per capita per year(US). Which sounds both fairer and better to you?
In addition, or probably because of universal health coverage, Canadians now live an average of 4.4 years longer than Americans do.
Canadians have the 12th longest lifespan in the world. The United States has the 51st longest lifespan in the world.
GET...what are you smoking! I was around in the 50s and 60s and there were neither Oliver type orphans in our country going shoeless or shirtless or elderly people thrown out in the streets. Old people lived mostly in multi generational households, and the American people were always accepting of providing foster and adoptive care to orphans. Where did you get that crazed socialistic revisionist vision of the 50s-70s? You, sir, are dead wrong! And it does appear that you are the poster "raging", not me!
Grandpa claims he was around in the 50's and 60's, but I'm doubtful he was in Appalachia...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b54t_bbmyXc
The chronic poverty of Appalachia is the outcome of economic domination and racism. In the 1930s, southern politicians prevented farm workers and domestic servants from qualifying for Social Security because they knew that the small Social Security check would support families and would change the labor market in the South. In the early days of coal mining, coal operators prevented workers from unionizing and demanding fair wages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qibgcVkkvy0
And in the interest of equal time, Bill O'Reilly was in Appalachia for a bit, but he's as insensitive as Fuzzie... People should just leave, according to Bullo... Head to Miami where there are jobs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLkc6LJmtNs&feature=related
Diane Sawyer: "I"m from Kentucky."
O'Reilly: "See. You got out."
And O'Reilly's a liar about people in the Sierras or Rocky Mountains not having poverty issues. I lived in the Sierras for a time. Many work two jobs; they're dependent on tourists and government projects. College towns like Chico, Corvallis, and Boulder exist at taxpayer expense, but at least they offer a return on investments. In Northern California, my choice for a social life was red-neck bars or fundamentalist Christian sorts... Nice enough people on both sides, but I didn't have anything in common with either. And most of the mountainous areas in the west are adjacent to farmland, so there's at least some outside income, but ranchers are essentially "subsidized" by grazing permits and livestock has decimated many of the ecosystems and watersheds.
There's one last bit of shinola in Grandpa's claims, the Civil Rights issue and African-American poverty... Cabbie's history class is in session... If you haven't watched it yet, please see The Help and its presentation of the two-tiered culture in the South...
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/randall/birmingham.htm
Now watch the accusations of race-baiting begin...
I love Lawrence O'Donnell, the smartest guy in online commentary.
But I had to work tonight and I am just now watching tonight's "Last Word" that I DVR's (to make sure I wouldn't miss it), and for once I am pretty sure I caught a little boo-boo by Lawrence and his excellent guests.
Tonight a big deal was made about how Mitt R-money has NO CORE PRINCIPLES, and that he is a wimp whose puppet strings are being pulled by conservative puppet-masters. For the most part I agree with this.
He has changed his views on Romneycare, abortion, gay rights and every imaginable CORE issue. ... EXCEPT ONE.
There is ONE core issue that R-money has never wavered on. Not since his 1994 Senate race. Not in his race for governor. Not in his failed 2008 nomination bid. Not in his successful (?) 2012 nomination bid.
He has NEVER wavered in his CLASS WARFARE against the middle class.
He has NEVER wavered in his absolutely resolute determination, despite huge outcry, to refuse to provide his tax returns or be as fiscally transparent as his father. He has NEVER wavered in his resolute determination to stand up for lower tax rates for the few richest elites, more corporate welfare, and the absolute abdication of any public policy oversight, accountability or regulation to protect workers, consumers and our shared environment against abuse by corporations.
Douglas Dunn,
I couldn't agree more. Lawrence O"Donnell is amazing. I never miss his show and have never found one area of disagreement with him.
Mitt Romey's father George had a rather simplified tax return, as he earned his income mostly in the form of salary, instead of stock options, dividends, and capital gains in multi investment opportunities from startup businesses to large multi national corporations. When George Romney ran American Motors, it's stock and stock options really didn't amount to much as the #5 American auto maker, behind General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and Jeep the latter later brought under the umbrella of the Chrysler brand. And American Motors also lagged in percentage of sales to the Euro imports like Volksagon, and Volvo to boot. Get the picture now, Douglas?
Uh, Grandpa, Chrysler didn't acquire the Jeep Brand until 1987... Mitt Romney's father ran the company from 1954-1962... So long as I keep getting information like that from Google, I'm going to pass on the Koch brand tinfoil hats you're peddling.
And per Ann Romney (I already posted this information, once, but your memory issues may be a factor, so I'll repeat it): George Romney gave Mitt stock in American Motors that was originally worth $5 a share, and was then worth $96, which allowed him to pay for his education without worry.
http://ed.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/18/11250976-in-1994-ann-romney-described-her-life-as-financially-struggling-college-student?lite
You're having almost as bad of a week here as Romney did last week in Europe. You ought to take a permanent vacation at a card room where the players aren't so tough.
Romney didn't make his money at Bain from start-ups and capital gains; he made it by using small amounts of money for leveraged buy-outs then used the acquisition to load the company with debt, raid the pension funds, savage the employees' pay rates if not firing them outright ("I like to fire people"), and if things didn't work out, file for bankrupcy. And of course outsourcing or moving operations overseas was also an option. Vulture capitalism, not venture...
The best case for Medicare is the life expectancy of Americans since Medicare started.
They misspelled Harry S Truman...
Wow!It is successfully running from the past few years. Congratulation on this account!
Before Medicare was enacted in 1965, most retired older people were at risk of financial ruin when they got sick. Medicare changed that picture, and our state and nation are much better for it.
www.medicaremissouri.com