Then & Now: Medicare and Medicaid Turn 50

When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law on July 30, 1965, roughly half of Americans 65 and older had no health insurance.

FILE - In this July 30, 1965 file photo, President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicare Bill into law while former President Harry S. Truman (R) observes during a ceremony at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo. AP Photo

WASHINGTON—When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law on July 30, 1965, roughly half of Americans 65 and older had no health insurance.

“No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine,” Johnson said at the bill signing. “No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years. No longer will young families see their own incomes, and their own hopes, eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral obligations to their parents, and to their uncles, and their aunts.”

Fifty years later, virtually all seniors have coverage, a far higher rate than younger people.

“It’s hard to imagine a world without Medicare and Medicaid,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said Wednesday, July 29, at the official commemoration. “Medicare and Medicaid aren’t just about health care; they are about who we are as a nation, about living up to our own values.”