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).
Logo -
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/DC91889LOGO
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-census-bureau-daily-feature-for-july-30-300111614.html
SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau