Medicaid and Medicare were signed into law in 1965 by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and have continued to establish both long and short-term benefits, changes and evolution in the healthcare sector. These two healthcare programs have played part in the establishment of the Affordable Care Act and have also led to various discussions and debates among community members, politicians and healthcare experts. The push for a national health insurance strategy gathered support from politicians such as President Roosevelt who made the issue a campaign issue. President Roosevelt drafted a social security program which was aimed at lowering the degree to which aspects such as old age, poverty and children with no identifiable dads were viewed as a danger. The Supreme Court later expunged the healthcare scheme with further efforts to revive similar plan failing. However, in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson passed a bill into law known as the Social Security Amendment Bill. The Act consisted of two parts later called Medicare and Medicaid (Piatak, 2015).
When Medicare went into effect the first time, the monthly premium was 3 dollars for medical insurance. In 2010, this cost has increased to about $96. There are also carve-outs and co-pays which raise the cost for the patient. Medicaid spending rose by 2.9% to about $600 billion in 2019 and Medicaid spending rose by about 6.7% to $790 billion (Cussen, 2021). Medicaid’s expenditure has grown from less than $1 billion since it establishment to an estimated $200 billion in 2000. In the same time, enrollment has increased to 33 million from 4 million. Additionally, spending per enrollee rose from $200 to almost $6,000. Medicaid cost per U.S citizen rose from $4 in 1966 to about $750 in 2000 (Klemm, 2000).

References

Cussen, M. (2021). How Much Medicaid and Medicare Cost Americans. Investopedia. Retrieved 10 September 2021, from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/082015/how-much-medicaid-and-medicare-cost-americans.asp.

Klemm, J. (2000). Medicaid Spending: A Brief History. PubMed Central (PMC). Retrieved 10 September 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4194698/.

Piatak, J. (2015). Understanding the Implementation of Medicaid and Medicare: Social Construction and Historical Context. Administration & Society, 49(8), 1165-1190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399715581030