Medicare and Social Security Anniversaries!
Happy 61st anniversary, Medicare! On July 30, where would seniors be without this health care benefit that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law in 1965? This expensive program — paying for Medicare itself and the costly supplemental insurance that coexists with it — is necessary. It lets us not ignore our health care and the issues that bring us to the doctor. Yes, we pay our part, and the government pays the balance of Medicare. But before the program, seniors had no care except what they paid out of pocket. Retired seniors had no health insurance before 1965.
Aug. 14 is Social Security’s 91st anniversary! Thank you, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, for signing this legislation in 1935, and thank you to Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, who was the architect and driving force behind Social Security. Until Social Security passed, seniors lived on their own, with family or in county poorhouses, because people who weren’t rich had no way to support themselves once they grew too old to work. Each of us pays into these funds out of every paycheck so we’ll have income in retirement once we’ve reached 10 years of work credits. Many of us work four times that or more.
Medicare and Social Security are essential to seniors’ lives. Happy anniversary to both programs — let’s keep them for ourselves and for the generations heading toward retirement behind us. Imagine what life would be like without that income, or with reduced income, and without health care. Our country is stronger than that. Let’s band together and keep these anniversaries worth celebrating.