Social Security Act Amendments

"This act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 30, 1965. The signing took place at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, MO, with former President Truman present in order to recognize his early effort to establish a national health insurance program. The act established Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly, and Medicaid, a health insurance program for the poor..."
Medicare

Social Security Act(1935)

"On August 14, 1935, the Social Security Act established a system of old-age benefits for workers, benefits for victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the physically handicapped.

Before the 1930s, support for the elderly was a matter of local, state and family rather than a Federal concern (except for veterans’ pensions). However, the widespread suffering caused by the Great Depression brought support for numerous proposals for a national old-age insurance system. On January 17, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a message to Congress asking for "social security" legislation. The same day, Senator Robert Wagner of New York and Representative David Lewis of Maryland introduced bills reflecting the administration’s views. The resulting Senate and House bills encountered opposition from those who considered it a governmental invasion of the private sphere and from those who sought exemption from payroll taxes for employers who adopted government-approved pension plans. Eventually the bill passed both houses, and on August 15, 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law..."
Social Security Act