President Lyndon Johnson and the Medicare Act of 1965

Introduction

Lyndon Johnson assumed his duties as president after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas. The ceremony of oath-taking took place aboard Air Force One. In the first months in office Johnson promoted legislative proposals put forward by President Kennedy. Later, Johnson proposed a program of poverty reduction to reduce taxes and help promote the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Jost 18-26). This act outlaws racial and other types of discrimination in employment, education and social assistance. Civil rights for all citizens was a key point of views of Johnson which was later epitomized in the "Great Society" (Jost 18-26).

In 1964, Lyndon Johnson won an easy victory over Republican Barry Goldwater (Barry M. Goldwater) in the presidential election with a majority of 15 million votes (61.1% of voters) (Jost 18-26). During Johnson's presidency, programs such as Medicare (caring for an elderly population of the United States) Medicaid (free medical care, poor) were adopted. Johnson created a special office on urbanization and housing, increased federal expenditures on educational programs, introduced the draft Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination and thus changing the lifestyle of the southern states, as allowed blacks to register for voting for the first time since Reconstruction (Jost 18-26).

Medicare

By the 1960s, the price of healthcare doubled. Americans, who did not have employer-sponsored plans, especially the elderly, had difficulty affording private medical coverage (Kaiser Foundation, 2007) (Kernell 47). After the Social Security Act of 1935, the government sought to improve healthcare benefits by passing the Medicare Act of 1965. The bill was signed President Lyndon B. Johnson in the presence of Harry S. Truman, acknowledging the former president's initial efforts to established a national healthcare plan (Kernell 47). The Medicare program provided medical benefits, such as prescription drug coverage, in addition to hospitalization and physician visits for the elderly and disabled (Kernell 47).

Medicaid

Although not part of the original Medicare legislation, the Medicaid program grew to be a core component of the American healthcare system. Medicaid funded more than one-third of all births in the United States and approximately half of all nursing home care (Kernell 47). The federal Medicaid program is the largest single payer in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and therapy for serious mental illness (Jost 18-26). The Medicaid program provided more than a third of the revenues used to support the healthcare for low-income, uninsured, and medically underserved people (Kernell 47). During the 1970s, the cost of healthcare continued to escalate; a dollar purchased less and the unexpectedly high costs of Medicare expenditures prompted the need for healthcare reform. The federal government's Medicare and Medicaid programs took significant steps towards closing the gap of minority health disparities. However, a significant number of racial and ethnic minorities still go without needed healthcare (Kernell 47).

The Political Rocks-obstacles

The many efforts to enact something like Medicare, going back to President Truman's early ambitious proposals, foundered on a couple of familiar political rocks, and ...