WASHINGTON, July 30, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
MEDICARE ANNIVERSARY
Profile America — Thursday, July 30th. The national government's broad involvement in individual health insurance goes back to this date 50 years ago. That's when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments, which established Medicare and Medicaid. The legislation was introduced in Congress in March 1965 and went through more than 500 amendments before being passed by large majorities in both the House and Senate. In January 1966, President Johnson handed the first Medicare cards to former President Harry Truman — who had advocated such a program — and his wife, Bess. Today, the Medicare system covers some 54 million Americans. The 65-and-older population in the U.S. nears 45 million and is expected to reach over 98 million by the year 2060. You can find more facts about America's people, places, and economy from the American Community Survey at www.census.gov.
Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts (Fifth Ed.) 4541
Legislative process: http://www.ssa.gov/history/ssa/lbjmedicare1.html
LBJ and Truman: http://www.lbjlibrary.org/press/the-1965-medicare-amendment-to-the-social-security-act
Truman advocacy: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/medicarebill.htm
Medicare beneficiaries: http://kff.org/medicare/fact-sheet/medicare-advantage-fact-sheet/
Older population: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2015/cb15-ff09.html
Projection: http://www.census.gov/population/projections/files/summary/NP2014-T1.xls
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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