On July 30, 1965, former President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law, issuing the first official Medicare card to former President Harry S. Truman.
The first beneficiary of Medicare was no coincidence, as 20 years prior, Truman had proposed a national health insurance program for Americans.
Since then, the right has sought to privatize Medicare—most recently in the form of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which cuts nearly $1 trillion from the government’s popular public health programs to fund tax cuts for the rich.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.
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