Medicare and Medicaid: 60 years of health care reform
Medicare and Medicaid: 60 years of health care reform
Medicare Rights Center; by Jisoo Choi; 7/30/25
On this day 60 years ago, Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law, creating a national health insurance program for older adults, people with disabilities, and people with limited incomes. In the first three years, Medicare and Medicaid enrolled nearly 20 million beneficiaries; today, Medicare has an enrollment of over 68 million and Medicaid, over 71 million. The programs, established amidst sustained public pressure and organizing by labor unions and older adults, have been and remain very popular: recent polling shows 82% of American adults hold a generally favorable view of Medicare, and 97% consider Medicaid to be important to people in their local communities.
- Context and Passage ...
- Expansions and Related Legislation ...
- Medicare and Medicaid Today ...
- [For more history, https://www.cms.gov/about-cms/who-we-are/history]
Guest Editor's Note, Judi Lund Person: We celebrate the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, providing health care coverage for millions of Americans. While it is not the official anniversary date for the Medicare Hospice Benefit (hospice was added and passed by the Congress on September 3, 1982), we celebrate Medicare’s coverage of hospice services and the more than 28 million Medicare beneficiaries that have received hospice care since 1983.
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