Revolutionizing the System: Medicare and the Rise of Government-Provided Healthcare in America

Sasha Rae-Grant Website National History Day Senior Division

"A Boycott of Medicare by Doctors in Several States Called a Possibility." New York Times 13 May 1965: 27. Print. This article provides information about the opposition to Medicare by some doctors, who were members of the American Medical Association. Surprisingly, the AMA president didn t approve of the idea of a boycott because nonparticipation would cost doctors money and turn away patients.

DeWitt, Larry. "Ronald Reagan and Medicare." Index. Larrydewitt.net, Sept. 2004. Web. 29 Oct. 2011. <http://www.larrydewitt.net/Essays/Reagan.htm>. This essay has 2-3 sections on Reagan's Operation Coffee Cup that he and the AMA used to try and stop Medicare from passing. AMA used its Women's Auxilary members to get the word out and to get people to send letters to Congress men to stop Medicare from passing. The Operation ultimately failed and descended into obscurity.

Dylan, Bob. "The Times They Are A-Changin'" Rec. 1964. The Times They Are AChangin' Bob Dylan. 1964. MP3. The anthem of the Sixties. A clip of the song plays on the home page of my website.

"Great Society." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2011. History on Great Society. I needed a general overview to get a sense of the times and why the Medicare legislation could pass then and not before. The reason was that the 89th Congress had a huge Democratic majority, and many members were pro-Medicare.

"Health Insurers Eye Medicare Fight." New York Times 11 Jan. 1965: 117. Print. This article talks about a side I hadn t found anything on before, the individual insurers. The insurers didn t like the idea of Medicare because they didn t want competition from the government. Medicare was needed, however, because many elderly (at least 39%) were uninsured at all, as of 1963.

Johnson, Lyndon B. "Great Society." University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. 22 May 1964. PBS.org. Web. 31 Jan. 2012. < http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primaryresources/lbj-michigan/> Transcript of Johnson s speech in Ann Arbor where he detailed his Great Society plan. Main quote on the home page.

"Johnson presents the first Medicare card." Image. Social Security Administration. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2011. Image of Johnson giving first Medicare card to Harry Truman. This was when Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law on July 30th, 1965.

Judd, Walter H. Medicare or Medical Care? Reader s Digest. 86. 514 (February 1965): 97-102. Print. This was actually one of the leaflets that the AMA mailed out against Medicare. I found it in one of the New York Times articles, and I thought I need this. Now. So I found the microfilm in the Cleveland Public Library of the article, read it, and then scanned and printed it out. Its argument was that Medicare actually didn t do enough to provide healthcare to the elderly because it only provided for hospital stays and nursing-home benefits, along with a few other benefits. Judd promoted the Kerrs-Mills bill, which was similar to the AMA s Eldercare bill.

Hunter, Marjorie. "Congress Nears Test on Medicare and School Bill." New York Times 5 Apr. 1965: 1+. Print. This article talks about the week when the House was expected to start debating the bill. It also mentioned how similar bills had passed the Senate, but those bills never got to the House.

Hunter, Marjorie. "Medicare Battle Looms in Senate." New York Times 21 June 1965: 23. Print. This was when the Medicare bill went through heavy revisions in the Senate Finance Committee. The revisions made the bill focus on low-income elderly, not everyone over the age of 65. Lyndon B. Johnson was pressuring for the revisions to be changed back.

Legislative History: Vote Tallies for Passage of Medicare in 1965. Social Security Online. Web. http://www.ssa.gov/history/tally65.html (numbers) This was the vote numbers for the final Medicare bill in the House and the Senate. The Medicare legislation passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 313 to 115, with 5 not voting. The bill passed the Senate with a vote of 68 to 21, with 11 not voting.

Life Expectancy in the US. Data360. Web. http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=195 When I was responding to the quotes from the Republican opposition, I needed the life expectancy numbers in order to counter Bob Dole s quote that basically said that Medicare didn t do anything.

Mackenzie, G. Calvin and Robert Weisbrot. The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008. Print. Useful history of 60s politics, especially the Great Society. This was used to get more background knowledge on the topic than the ABC-CLIO article provided.

Marmor, Theodore R. The Politics of Medicare. New York: Aldine De Gruyer, 2000. Print. Second Edition. Most useful book I found. Period. It had pretty much everything I needed, plus it was a used copy and already marked up, so that mean that much less work. It had facts about healthcare legislation from before the Medicare legislation was introduced, some medical facts from that time, and the book focused on my topic, the politics surrounding Medicare.

"Medicare." Editorial. New York Times 3 July 1966, The News of the Week in Review sec.: 1. Print.

In addition to the editorial on the side, which focused on how doctors were responding the Medicare legislation (it had gone in effect in 1966, with 19 million elderly signing up that year), there was an infographic on how Medicare would help the elderly.

Medicare The Sixties in America. Ed. Carl Singleton. 1st ed. Vol. 2. Pasadena: Salem Press, Inc. 1999. 468-467. Print. An encyclopedia entry that detailed what the Medicare legislation actually did. There were two parts to it, Part A and Part B. Part A is what everyone gets when they sign up for Medicare. Part B is voluntary supplemental coverage that requires a monthly premium.

Morris, John D. "Conferees Clear Bill on Medicare." New York Times 22 July 1965: 1+. Print. This was an article on the second to last vote for Medicare. The final bill was called a landmark for social welfare legislation and reform. It called for an expansion of the Social Security program in order to cover the costs. Only elderly Americans who were signed up for the Social Security program could get Medicare coverage.

Morris, John D. "Congress Passes Bill on Medicare." New York Times 29 July 1965: 14. Print. An article from the day after the Medicare bill was passed by Congress on July 28. It also said when elderly Americans could start getting benefits (July 1, 1966). The vote on the ballot was heavily one sided, with Medicare passing by huge majorities thanks to supportive Democrats.

Oberlander, Jonathan. The Political Life of Medicare. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003. Print. This book was useful for background on pre-Medicare healthcare plans, and it explained the AMA s opposition to the bill well. The AMA opposed the bill because they thought it would force patients to go to certain doctors or limit their choices. They also had an alternate bill that would be partially state and partially federally

funded. Because their bill would be mostly state funded, the federal government would have little say, and the coverage would be uneven, because it depended on how much the state was willing to pay.

Reagan, Ronald. "Ronald Reagan Speaks out on Socialized Medicine." Speech. Youtube. Reagan Foundation, 23 July 2009. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrlDlrLDSQ>. This was the actual recording of Reagan. I recorded part of it for the website.

Rusk, Howard A. "Congress and Medicine: 89th Enacted More Healthcare Measures Than Any Other Congress in History." New York Times 20 Nov. 1966: 59. Print. This article talked about how the 89th Congress passed many healthcarerelated measures, with the big one being Medicare. Medicaid, a program that would provide healthcare for the poor that was primarily state funded, was also passed. There were also 13 other acts Congress passed that were related to healthcare that were listed in the article.

Unger, Irwin and Debi, ed. The Times Were a Changin : The Sixties Reader. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998. Print. The pages in this book on Medicare stated that Medicare was one of the most significant pieces of legislation that came out of Johnson s Great Society movement. It also described how various presidents, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, thought about healthcare bills, but, at least in Roosevelt s case, the idea was dropped because the medical profession threatened to kill the entire Social Security bill. The book also had a few facts that Johnson used to push the bill, such as the fact that people over 65 go to the hospital more and for an average of twice as long as younger citizens.

Video of Medicare bill being signed and Harry Truman receiving his card. Social Security Online. Web. http://www.ssa.gov/history/mpeg/trumanbig.mpg

This is a video of when Johnson signed the Medicare bill with Truman there, and he called Truman the father of healthcare in America. This is a video I ll actually be using on my website. Video of senior citizen testifying to the difficulty of getting healthcare. Social Security Online. Web. http://www.ssa.gov/history/mpeg/seniorbig.mpg A senior citizen says that there needs to be healthcare legislation to help the elderly. The citizen states that healthcare is an important part of the living standard of Americans, and that the elderly need help covering all their costs.

Volsky, Igor. Flashback: Republicans Opposed Medicare In 1960s By Warning Of Rationing, Socialized Medicine . July 29, 2009. Web. http://thinkprogress.org/health/2009/07/29/170887/medicare-44/ These were some of the reasons that Republicans opposed Medicare when it was enacted. There were also quotes, which, in my PowerPoint and eventually on the website, I responded to by proving them either totally or partially false.

Watson, W. Marvin. Chief of Staff: Lyndon Johnson and his Presidency. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2004. Print. The book describes how Johnson convinces Wilbur Mills, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee at the time, and John Sparkman, an influential senator, to support the Medicare bill. Johnson knew that without their support, Medicare had next to no hope of passing.

Wehrwein, Austin C. "A.M.A. Attacking Medicare By Mail." New York Times 17 Feb. 1965: 25. Print. This article detailed how the AMA was trying to prevent the Medicare bill from passing by mailing out leaflets that were against Medicare and for the AMA s Eldercare bill. One of the leaflets mentioned was the Judd article, which proved to be a valuable source for me.

Wehrwein, Austin C. "A.M.A. Split on Proposals For a Boycott of Medicare." New York Times 22 June 1965: 1+. Print.

This article was about how the AMA wasn t sure whether to boycott the legislation or not. The president was against it, while some doctors were for it. Ten resolutions were introduced on the matter, and the votes were split. The article also talked about how black doctors were excluded from medical societies and they were protesting it when the meetings related to the Medicare boycott issue were taking place.

Wicker, Tom. "Medicare's Progress: Blocked 8 Years, It Moves Toward Passage as Public Opinion Changes." New York Times 25 Mar. 1965: 49. Print. This article talks about how Medicare is possible in 1965 rather than before that time and how public opinion on the matter changed over time. Before, Congress was more conservative, and then liberal Democrats slowly built a majority until Johnson came into office. When that happened, there were enough votes to pass the bill.

Woods, Randall B. LBJ: Architect of American Ambition. New York: Free Press, 2006. Print. This book describes how Johnson felt pressured to pass all his Great Society bills, including Medicare, in the brief amount of time that the 89th Congress was in session (20 months) because otherwise they would have a much lower chance of being passed. It also mentions how in the 1960 s, the US was the only developed country that didn t have a healthcare program for the elderly. Johnson wanted to define health care as a basic right, like education, adequate shelter, and nutritional food.