APB Healthcare Feature Story: 50th Anniversary of Medicare

14 Jul 2015

In his 1965 State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson made the statement, “Greatness requires not only an educated people but a healthy people.” Devoted to this idea of improved and accessible healthcare, on July 30th of that year Johnson finally put into effect the piece of legislature that was decades in the making. The Social Security Amendments of 1965, or the legislation responsible for Medicare and Medicaid, provided affordable medical care for elderly and low-income Americans.

Although initially difficult to enact, these programs still — as we approach the bill’s 50th anniversary — serve millions of deserving individuals. Before this service, more than 50% of the elderly population did not have medical insurance and more than 30% lived below the poverty line. In the first six months of the program’s installment, over 2.5 million patients were finally given access to the coverage and treatments necessary. With the increased financial stability of the nation’s disadvantaged, overall prosperity was improved.

As of 2015, the positive effects are still experienced as more than 55 million benefit from the affordable and much needed medical care. Now, Medicare is considered one of the largest public health insurance programs in the world. Many of APB’s healthcare speakers can weigh in on this meaningful milestone in the healthcare community. We work with a multitude of experts, including medical and health policy speakers, alternative medicine speakers, fitness/nutrition/obesity speakers, life coaches and many others.

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