On This Day
First Medicare Program
First Medicare Program
On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare into law.
The Social Security Act of 1965 established the nation's Medicare and Medicaid programs, financed by higher Social Security payroll taxes.
At the bill-signing ceremony, which took place at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, former President Harry Truman was enrolled as Medicare’s first beneficiary and received the first Medicare card.
