Attempts to improve welfare under President Johnson

Lyndon B Johnson had been a for Texas before he became John F Kennedy’s vice president in 1961. He was more experienced than Kennedy in getting laws passed through Additionally, as a from the South, he had a better idea of how to deal with opposition to legislation. When Kennedy was in 1963, Johnson took over as president, and he was re-elected in 1964. He is most well known for increasing America’s involvement in the His efforts to continue Kennedy’s reforms are less well remembered.

The Great Society programme

A photograph of President Lyndon B Johnson speaking into microphones and addressing Congress — Figure caption,
President Lyndon B Johnson addressing Congress in 1968

Johnson continued Kennedy’s programme to end He used the term to describe what he wanted to achieve through his reforms: a free, equal and society. This meant trying to help the poor, the elderly, the sick and black Americans - anyone who was struggling or being against.

There is ongoing debate about how successful Johnson’s ‘war on poverty’ was. The proportion of people living in poverty in America was reduced from roughly 19 per cent in 1964 to around 11 per cent in 1973. However, the largest drop in the number of people living in poverty had actually happened in the five years before this.

The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time.

— President Lyndon B Johnson in a speech at the University of Michigan, May 1964

Medicare and Medicaid

In 1965, President Johnson signed the Law, as part of the Social Security Act Amendments. This introduced Medicare which provided basic hospital and medical for people aged 65 and older. More than half of elderly people could not afford to buy their own health care insurance, and they were more likely to need expensive medical treatment than younger people.

Medicare helped to medical treatment as the government would not pay claims made by health care providers. The programme cost $10 billion to set up and around 19 million people signed up for it in its first year. In 1972, the scheme was expanded to include disabled people who were younger than 65.

The 1965 Social Security Amendments also introduced to help provide health care for people who were unable to pay for healthcare insurance themselves. The federal government would provide half of the money required and the rest would come from individual states. However, how the scheme was run would vary from state to state.

Some elderly people and disabled people were able to claim support from both Medicare and Medicaid.

Social problems and attempts to tackle them - OCR AAttempts to improve welfare under President Johnson