The beginnings of Medicare... Thom Hartmann
I remember listening to Thom Hartmann's radio show several years ago and him saying that the original intent of Medicare was to cover the 65 and older folks first, then the eligibility age was to drop by 10 years every 10 years or so until everyone was covered...
In researching the google, I came across this article written by Thom in early 2016. I thought it was interesting and the observations of Robert M. Ball who was at the ground floor of the beginnings of Medicare were spot on.
The article is titled "Why Insurance Companies Are Nervous About Sanders' Health Care Agenda", and while the article mentions Bernie and his Medicare for All policy position, the historical aspects of the article are what I found most informative.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/why-insurance-companies-are-nervous-about-sanders-health-care-agenda
Medicare was created as an add-on to Social Security, not as a standalone program, and so Ball was intimately involved in its creation, as Commissioner of Social Security throughout the Johnson years. He sat in on the meetings with members of the House and Senate, he was involved in the process of writing the legislation, and he was the man charged with helping implement it after LBJ signed it into law on July 30, 1965, and gave the first Medicare cards to Harry and Bess Truman.
and yes... it was the original intent to eventually cover all citizens over time...
But in the final days of the development of the Medicare program, word got out that the people putting it together, including President Johnson, saw it as a program that could easily be modified to cover all Americans by the simple process of lowering the eligibility age, presumably incrementally over a decade or two. This pushed the insurance companies over the edge, prompting on their part a “fervent desire to keep government from penetrating further into the insurance business.” Ball adds, “Although most business groups opposed Medicare, the insurance industry was the AMA’s main ally.”
I thought it was informative and wanted to share this article with fellow DUers...
= new reply since forum marked as read
