Medicare Turns 50 - Transforming Health, Financial Security Medicare Resource Center

Medicare Turns 50

Government program celebrates a half-century of transforming the health lives and financial security of millions of older Americans

An Open Letter to My Daughter on Medicare’s 50th Anniversary: Before Medicare, one out of three people 65 and over lived in poverty. Fifty years later, fewer than 10 percent do. Today, people who reach 65 are living six years longer on average than before Medicare. Through the power of one woman’s experience, we are reminded of why health security is so important to every generation. Learn more from . Fifty years ago, on July 30, 1965, signed — and its sister program Medicaid — into law in the presence of former President Harry Truman in Independence, Mo. Eleven months later, both programs went into effect, with Truman and his wife, Bess, receiving the first two Medicare cards. (Truman was the first president to endorse the idea of a national program.) Courtesy of LBJ Presidential Library President Johnson signing the Medicare program into law, July 30, 1965. Before Medicare's passage, only about half of American seniors had any kind of health insurance, and much of what they did have was inadequate. So it was with genuine trepidation that Johnson and his administration looked to the day when Medicare was to begin. Would seniors put off seeking treatment until coverage started? Would the hospitals be stormed by patients brandishing their new Medicare cards, only to be turned away? Alarmed by that prospect, Johnson personally ordered military helicopters to be on standby, ready to whisk patients to Army hospitals if any civilian ones became overwhelmed. It never happened. The helicopters were never needed, and the rollout ran smoothly.

More on Medicare

— Receive access to exclusive information, benefits and discounts Thirty years later, in 1995, commissioner , who was responsible for getting Medicare up and running, noted that the program had amply succeeded. "Because of Medicare, hundreds of millions of older people and their sons and daughters have been better off," Ball wrote. Plus, he added, their quality of life had been greatly improved "because of the availability of many modern medical techniques that otherwise might have been affordable only for the affluent." Before Medicare, many seniors without insurance or financial help from their children received in charity wards, cared for by medical students. Medicare changed that forever. Right from the beginning, Medicare required a standard of care equivalent to paying customers, Ball recalled. This "meant being cared for in the relative luxury of a two-bed semiprivate room. It meant being treated with respect." It also meant the end of racial segregation in hospitals after Johnson, who had signed the Civil Rights Act into law one year earlier, ordered that any hospitals continuing to segregate black and white patients would not be eligible for Medicare payments. The hospitals integrated almost overnight. Since then, Medicare has expanded greatly. In its first year, 19 million people signed up for the program; today it serves more than 54 million. Over the years, Medicare has added coverage for people with disabilities (1972), hospice care (1982), outpatient (2006) and free preventive services (2011). And Medicare now covers medical treatments that didn't exist in 1965, such as heart transplants, knee replacements and complex cancer medications. Medicare still has yawning gaps — coverage for routine dental, vision and , for example — and comes with significant out-of-pocket expenses unless beneficiaries have other insurance to help pay the bills. And although it offers far more choices than it did in the beginning — with the option of receiving coverage through competing private health plans () instead of the traditional fee-for-service program — the system has also become more complex for beneficiaries. Today, Medicare is facing perhaps its greatest challenge to date, as the baby boom generation ages into the system at a current rate of about 10,000 a day. In 2011, when the first boomers joined the program, the Medicare population stood at 47.6 million; by 2030, when the last boomer signs up, it will top 81 million. Given the rise in population and health costs, the system will no doubt be under financial strain unless some changes are made. Just what those changes should be is a topic of hot debate on Capitol Hill. As it celebrates its 50th birthday, though, AARP and others are praising the system's overwhelming success. "Thanks to Medicare, all Americans age 65 and older are guaranteed access to health coverage — they can't be denied because of their age or health condition," said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer. "Medicare represents health security for all Americans." Patricia Barry is the author of AARP Medicare for Dummies. Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Your email address is now confirmed. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. You can also by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in. Cancel Offer Details Disclosures

Close In the next 24 hours, you will receive an email to confirm your subscription to receive emails related to AARP volunteering. Once you confirm that subscription, you will regularly receive communications related to AARP volunteering. In the meantime, please feel free to search for ways to make a difference in your community at Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again.