The day health care in America changed forever

Tomorrow, July 30, is a date of historic firsts.

In 1619, the House of Burgesses, America’s first elected governing assembly met for the first time in Virginia, just 12 years after the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown.

In 1792, 500 Marseillaisians sang France’s national anthem for first time, Allons enfants de la patrie . . .

And in 1965, July 30th was the day health care in America changed forever.

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965, Public.Law 89–97, 79 Stat. 286, better known as the statute that created two landmark programs, Medicare and Medicaid, that extended health insurance coverage for the first time to tens of millions of seniors, children, and the disabled across the nation.

Medicare signing 7-30-2015

Beginning today, MECEP will publish a series of blog posts on how Medicare and Medicaid have improved the quality of life and the delivery of health care in Maine and America over the last five decades, culminating in the even greater and far reaching milestone when President Barak Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010.