Protecting the People
“We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for…the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use.” ~ President Teddy Roosevelt
This week marks the anniversary of President Johnson signing Medicare into to existence on July 30th, 1965. The President signed the bill into law at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library with former President Truman being the first recipient of the first Medicare card because of his efforts to get a national healthcare system started during his presidency in 1945. The history of our national healthcare efforts goes back well before President Johnson and President Truman. National healthcare was one of the planks in the platform for Teddy Roosevelt in his failed attempt at the presidency in 1912. As the United States stood idle on the issue of national healthcare in the late 1800’s, many of the industrialized nations of Europe had already started to put into place early measures that would develop into the national healthcare systems we see today. It wasn’t so much out of benevolence and care that nations like Great Britain and Germany developed healthcare systems to take care of their populations. The general belief was that healthy workers made for more industrious workers and so the wealthy pushed for measures to take care of the poor working class.
There have been efforts in the United States to get universal healthcare coverage long before Medicare came about and each time it was struck down. As early as 1880’s there were those in this country that saw the need of taking care of our own who couldn’t take care of themselves. The United States, at the time, was an isolated country whose mindset was very different from our European cousins. With a wide ocean to help insulate the common person from the affairs of the European continent and an industrious, “can do” self-sufficient attitude, most Americans couldn’t see the need for a universal form of government supported healthcare. At the time around the turn of the twentieth century, families still tended to take care of their elderly within the family homes. As the twentieth century moved forward through two world wars, industrialization, and a social and economic metamorphous…the family unit structure changed and suddenly there were more and more elderly who were left to live on their own and fend for themselves. A study under the Kennedy administration showed that 56% of Americans over the age of 65 had no health insurance and President Kennedy tried and failed to get universal health coverage for the elderly before he was assassinated. Why did President Johnson succeed where so many others failed? The time was ripe as the United States, as a whole, was going through a period of growth of social consciousness.
The initial bill, H.R. 6675, took care of those who were 65 years or older and in that first year the budget was $10 million dollars and had 19 million people sign up. Today, more than 58 million Americans are enrolled with Medicare and take advantage of the help the program offers for medical exams and procedures as well as to help offset the cost of medications. Even though the original bill was designed for those who were 65 years of age, over the following years, the Medicare program has been expanded to include those younger than 65 with long term disabilities, those in extreme poverty and a whole list of other changes that are too numerous to list here. The evolution of the idea of healthcare coverage has grown to include universal healthcare coverage in the form of the Affordable Healthcare Act of 2010. Though the system is not perfect, it does allow millions of Americans to have access to health insurance who found it to be unattainable before. The healthcare in the United States is the most expensive in the world and as a nation we have a long way to go before we find an equilibrium of services provided and cost. Other industrialized nations who provide healthcare have been doing it for well over a hundred years and we are relative newcomers to the game. It will take time for us to sort it out and be happy with the system we develop but we have a start. Even though President Johnson was the first to sign a national healthcare bill, we owe a thanks of gratitude for all those who came before and advocated for the health and wellbeing of our people. Take care of yourself and each other, remember, we’re all in this thing together.
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
wmreid@bhcshealth.com