Celebrating the value of Medicare, Medicaid at 50

Think government, and many Americans instinctively think distress, dissatisfaction and disappointment.

Just glance at the widespread distress over Islamic State terror threats, glimpse at the wholesale dissatisfaction over our do-nothing Congress or gaze at the abject disappointment over what many consider the super-sized clown-car jamming in the 2016 pack of presidential candidates.

But just as such despair mounts, along comes a golden anniversary this week that serves as a cogent reminder that not all government mechanisms are completely broken. Indeed, this week’s 50th anniversary of former President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s enactment of the landmark Medicare and Medicaid programs reminds us of two singularly positive and productive initiatives that keep the “good” in good government alive.

With the stroke of his presidential pen on July 29, 1965, Johnson launched a resolution in health-care affordability and accessibility that truly deserved the “Great Society” moniker of which it was the solid foundation.

Over the past 50 years, Medicare and Medicaid have matured into two of the most critical threads in America’s immensely improved health-care fiber.

THE WAY IT WAS

In 1965, only 50 percent of our senior citizens had the comfort and security of health insurance. Today, Medicare works to insure nearly all of them, including the 54,000 senior enrollees in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties. All gain security in the federal health-care safety net. As a result, poverty among older Americans has plummeted dramatically – from 28 percent in 1966 to about 9 percent today.

Medicaid, a federally and state-funded program, provides a realm of services for low-income families and individuals ranging from critical prenatal and maternity care for mothers to rehabilitation for the disabled.

For example, in Ohio, the program ranks as the No. 1 payer for all nursing-home care.

We could continue to count the many ways that Medicare and Medicaid have ameliorated the quality of life for tens of millions of our citizens over the past five decades. But don’t take our words for its success. Consider the results of a poll conducted this spring by the Kaiser Foundation that illuminated the overwhelming support for the programs among the general populace. In fact, some 77 percent of respondents called Medicare the most successful and important government-sponsored program, second only to Social Security.

Part of Medicare’s tremendous success lies in its adaptability to change. Over the years, both compassionate assistance programs have been revised, tweaked and expanded to better achieve their noble missions. For example, since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act five years ago, many years of solvency have been added to the Medicare Trust Fund. In Ohio, the ACA prompted expansion of Medicaid, adding approximately 500,000 new beneficiaries in the Buckeye State over the past two years.

PROGRAMS MUST ADAPT

The programs’ ongoing success will rely heavily on that same ability to adapt and reinvent itself toward maximum success with as minimal a pinch on the U.S. Treasury as possible.

Toward those ends, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has used the 50th anniversary of Medicare as an opportunity to introduce the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act, legislation that would allow senior citizens to enroll in a Part D prescription drug plan administered by Medicare instead of a private insurance company. According to Brown, the bill also would help drive down costs for recipients by requiring the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower prices for Medicare prescription medications.

In lowering costs for recipients, the legislation stands to further provide savings in the administration of the 50 million-member compact, thereby contributing to its own financial health and longevity.

Brown’s legislation merits serious consideration and debate in Congress. Improving the successful and admired federal program can only reinforce President Johnson’s benevolent aims and reinforce the goodness that our government can continue to embody.