President Lyndon B. Johnson signed amendments to the Social Security Act into law on this day in 1965, establishing two public health care programs titled Medicare and Medicaid. You may have heard of them.
National health insurance had been one of many ideas on the table in the drafting of the 1935 Social Security Act, which established both the Social Security system and unemployment insurance. Health insurance hadn’t made the cut in the end, out of fear it would tank the bill. It was one of President Harry Truman’s main priorities during his time in office, from 1945 to 1953, but he failed to get it passed as well. National health insurance remained a regular topic of conversation on Capitol Hill, though, until Johnson’s ascent to the presidency in 1963.
LBJ made social welfare one of his administration’s biggest priorities, including health care programs. Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, so debate focused more on what the final version of the bill should look like instead of whether it should pass at all. The final version passed the House of Representatives on July 27 and the Senate on July 28, before being signed into law the next day.
