Fifty years ago, on July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law as an amendment to the Social Security Act. In that year, almost half of those 65 and older in the United States, did not have health insurance. They lived in fear that getting sick or going to a doctor would send them and their families into poverty.

Celebrating a milestone for an unruly behemoth like Medicare seems rather ironic. Does anyone care about such an anniversary? It doesn’t quite reach the level of the moon landing in 1969.

Medicare officials want people to remember how it came about so long ago. While Medicare has major problems, it was a first. A huge first. Millions have benefitted from it. The program was part of Johnson’s vision of the ‘Great Society’— a country without poverty; without racial injustice.

Such a move in the 1960s — in the midst of the escalating Vietnam War, was extremely controversial. It was not unlike the more recent fuss about the Affordable Care Act.

There is no doubt that everyone knows someone who has been on Medicare. Nearly one out of every three Americans depends on Medicare or Medicaid for health care.

In our state, there are over 1.7 million Medicaid enrollees in addition to almost 1.2 million covered by Medicare ­—  more than 40 percent of the state’s population.

However, it is a huge sprawling, unwieldy government agency. There is waste and fraud. Earlier this year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) designated Medicare as a “high-risk program because its complexity and susceptibility to improper payments have led to serious management challenges.”  An understatement.

Let’s hope for positive changes and continuing care for patients, their families and for taxpayers.

Mary L. Grady, Editor

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