PROFILE AMERICA

July 3, 2008

Medicare's 40th

The question of providing health care for elderly Americans and how to pay for it has been raised often during this year’s political campaigns.

The backbone of our system is Medicare — guaranteed medical insurance for those 65 and older. The program was signed into law 40 years ago this week by President Lyndon Johnson. The first Medicare cards were issued to former President Harry Truman and his wife, Bess.

Now, more than 43 million people are enrolled — 7 million of them disabled. Each year, the costs of hospital stays and skilled nursing care for Medicare patients comes to more than $380 billion.

You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau online at
<www.census.gov>.