Everyone’s heard of it. But what is it, really?

Medicare is a health insurance plan administered by the government and available to U.S. citizens who are age 65 or older, disabled, suffer from Lou Gehrig’s disease (i.e., Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), have kidney failure or meet the qualifications to receive a kidney transplant. 1

The concept of offering every American a medical service coverage plan was initially proposed by President Theodore Roosevelt during his electoral campaign. President Harry S. Truman also made attempts to get legislation passed to approve federal funding for the plan. However, the plan was not approved until 1965, and stipulations were attached to the bill, which prevented every American from receiving national medical insurance. Despite these initial failed attempts, the persistent efforts of Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson eventually resulted in the approval of this health insurance program. 2

1 http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/medicare.asp
2 https://www.medicareresources.org/basic-medicare-information/brief-history-of-medicare/