Political Quotes

“I remind my colleagues that tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of President Johnson traveling to Independence, MO, to be with President Truman, who in the 1940s had attempted to push through Congress legislation to expand the Social Security Act to include what we now call Medicare. When President Johnson went to Independence, MO, he signed the legislation. The one we pay the most attention to is Medicare, which is health care for the elderly, but probably equally important and certainly very significant is the creation of Medicaid. Medicaid came out of several years of congressional debate where Congress understood that low-income people--especially low-income people who were working--didn't have insurance. It was for people who were poor, people in nursing homes, and it evolved for elderly people. Most of the money in Medicaid goes to take care of the elderly in nursing homes, and it has had such an impact on their lives. But think about what Medicare has done. Prior to 1965, this social insurance program--this program we call Medicare today--provided health care to almost every senior. Prior to 1965, only about half of the senior citizens in the United States of America had health insurance-- only about half. Huge numbers of the elderly lived in poverty. They lived in poverty partly because for a whole host of reasons they couldn't save enough and Social Security wasn't quite enough. Many lived in poverty because of their health care costs.…”