Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Obama Marks Medicare's Big 5-0
USA Today: Obama Marks 50th Anniversary Of Medicare, Medicaid
President Obama marked the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid Thursday by saying the U.S. should do more to expand and improve health care for all Americans, including the law he signed in 2010. "We must recognize that this work, though begun a half-century ago and continued over the decades that have followed, is not yet complete," Obama said in a proclamation. "For too many, quality, affordable health care is still out of reach -- and we must recommit to finishing this important task." (Jackson, 7/30)
USA Today: Medicare Turns 50 But Americans Still Have A Lot To Learn
Medicare, the landmark health insurance program for those 65 and older, turned 50 on Thursday. Some 55.2 million Americans are enrolled in the program and 91% of them, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released this month, say their experiences with the insurance have been positive. But anecdotal evidence suggests that many are nonetheless perplexed by what it does — and doesn't — provide. (Jones, 7/30)
Marketplace: At 50, Medicare Is Spending More On Hospice
Fifty years into the Medicare program, the federal health insurance program for Americans 65 and older, one feature has remained fairly constant: About 25 percent of spending goes to care in the last year of life. (Baxter, 7/30)
Kaiser Health News: Meet The California Family That Has Made Health Policy Its Business
If there’s such a thing as the first family of health care, the Lees may be it. Five decades ago, two brothers helped start Medicare. Their father inspired them and they, in turn, have inspired the next generation. To mark the anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson signing Medicare into law on July 30, 1965, three Lees sat down to reflect on the U.S. health care system." It can be hard now to imagine a time when Medicare met serious opposition. But 92-year-old Dr. Peter Lee, a founder of the family medicine department at the University of Southern California, remembers that time well. (O'Neill, 7/30)
