Medicare, Past, Present, and Future: A Policy Perspective

Abstract

This article traces the history of the Medicare program from its inception in 1965 when it passed as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society era in public policy, through major cost containment reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, and the far-reaching effects of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Implications for nurses who work in public policy are provided as well as scenarios for future reform. Key political players in the Medicare reform debate are introduced and their positions are explained and placed in an overall federal framework for health care reform.