Medicare is national health insurance for U.S. senior citizens and has been in operation for over 50 years.  In more recent years, benefits have expanded to include young people with permanent disabilities as being eligible to receive Medicare services.

The name "Medicare" was originally given to a program providing medical care for families of individuals serving in the military as part of the Dependents' Medical Care Act, which was passed in 1956.  

In January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first White House Conference on Aging, in which creating a health care program for social security beneficiaries was proposed.

In the period of the early 1960s, only 60% of those over the age of 65 had health insurance, with coverage often unavailable or unaffordable, as older adults paid more than 3Xs as much for health insurance as younger people.

In 1965, under the leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, Congress passed the Medicare bill under Title XVII of the Social Security Act to provide health insurance to people age 65 and older, regardless of income or medical history.  On July 30, 1965, President Johnson signed the bill into law.

Based upon Medicare law, health care providers were required to practice desegregation in order to receive payments.  This requirement resulted in the desegregation of thousands of waiting rooms, hospital floors, and physician practices.

In October 2018, Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell blamed Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security for the soaring, nearly $800 billion, federal deficit, with plans to cut massive dollars from these program.

After a Republican-backed tax cut for wealthy Americans, led by President Donald Trump and McConnell, in 2017, the deficit grew by a whopping 17% from the previous years.