Medicare's 35th birthday falls amid new debate

By Judy Woodruff/CNN

July 12, 2000
Web posted at: 2:23 p.m. EDT (1823 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal Medicare program, which provides health insurance coverage for tens of millions of seniors, marks its 35th birthday this month, amid debate about expanding the entitlement program to add a prescription drug benefit.

President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill creating the program July 12, 1965 in Independence, Missouri. Johnson was joined by former President Harry Truman, who had proposed a similar program in the late 1940s.

Truman's health care proposals during his presidency were rejected as "socialized medicine," but increases in health care costs over the next decade raised concerns that the country's elderly were being driven into bankruptcy.

At the signing ceremony, Johnson gave Truman the program's first membership card.

"We wanted you to know, and we wanted the entire world to know, that we haven't forgotten who is the real daddy of Medicare," Johnson told Truman.

Today, the program is so popular politicians consider it nearly untouchable.

Congress examined the issue through a special committee in the late 1950s, and President John Kennedy gave a proposed program the name "Medicare."

Johnson made its passage one of his domestic priorities after his election in 1964. He argued the program was needed because senior citizens were hospitalized three times as often as younger Americans, with less than half the income of those under 65.

"The end result is what? They then turn to public welfare. Now, this is not the American way," Johnson said.

More than 19 million senior Americans over age 65 joined Medicare in the year after its passage. Today, 39 million are enrolled, and the number is expected to double by 2030.

Now, the program is the subject of a new debate -- whether to expand its coverage to include prescription drugs.

President Clinton and his Democratic allies in Congress say Medicare's creators could not foresee pharmaceutical advances that have made prescription drugs so important to the health of many seniors. Today, they say, no one would consider establishing a program like Medicare without a prescription drug benefit.

Republicans have offered a different proposal, one that subsidizes private insurers who offer prescription drug coverage. Wednesday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth, R-Delaware, offered a compromise that would enlist the government's help in paying a share of older Americans' drug costs.

CNN's Kate Snow and Dana Bash contributed to this report.