Fifty Years of Medicaid

For the past fifty days - by posting program highlights, research findings and the voices of our beneficiaries - we hope we have successfully illuminated the importance of Medicaid to the health of our families, our neighbors and our nation. We aimed to demonstrate how Medicaid has made a...

Did you know that the Social Security Amendments of 1965, the legislation that created Medicaid and Medicare, was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 30, 1965 in Independence, Missouri? Independence was President Harry Truman’s home town. 

Medicaid is a cost-effective health coverage program. It generally provides a more comprehensive benefit package than private insurance and costs less per beneficiary than private insurance. A recent analysis of Medicaid expenditure data shows that in 2005, for people with similar health status, Medicaid cost 27% less for children and 20% less for adults than private insurance.

Medicaid, like other health coverage programs, helps to assure access to health care. Independent research shows that the vast majority of Medicaid beneficiaries - whether they are children or adults - report that they have a usual source of care and have had a well-child visit or a general doctor visit in the past 12 months.

Most Medicaid beneficiaries are employed or are in households where someone is working. In 2013, 79% of children who were Medicaid beneficiaries lived with at least one worker; 65% lived with at least one full-time worker. That year, 65% of adults with Medicaid were in a family with a worker; half were in a family with at least one full-time worker. Adults who qualify for Medicaid may be working but earning low wages and may not be able to afford private coverage.

The opportunity to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults has opened the door to health coverage for millions of people who may never have had insurance before or who may have been uninsured for a long time. Many have pressing health needs that they have not been able to address because, without coverage, they could not afford to see a doctor or obtain necessary medications. Among the states that have not expanded Medicaid, the median eligibility threshold for parents with dependent children is just 45% of the federal poverty line.

Medicaid is designed to provide health coverage for our nation’s most vulnerable individuals and families. Medicaid makes it possible for millions of children, parents, pregnant women, people with disabilities and seniors to get the health coverage they need to get healthy and stay healthy.  And now, more low-income adults are eligible for Medicaid than ever before as a result of the Medicaid expansion, implemented with federal support provided through the Affordable Care Act.  

On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the law establishing the Medicare and Medicaid programs. With that, the prospects for healthier living and a more secure future brightened for millions of Americans. The Medicaid program, designed as a federal-state partnership, was created to provide health coverage for low-income families and children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities. Medicaid is highly adaptable, which is central to its capacity to rise to complex new challenges.