Johnson signs Social Security Amendments creating Medicare and Medicaid at Truman Library

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Amendments of 1965 (P.L. 89-97) into law at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, honoring Truman's long-failed push for national health insurance. The law adds Title XVIII (Medicare) and Title XIX (Medicaid) to the Social Security Act. Medicaid creates a joint federal-state program to provide health care to low-income families, the elderly poor, disabled, and blind. Truman, age 81, is the first person enrolled in Medicare. In its first year, federal Medicaid and Medicare spending totals approximately $2.2 billion.