THE MEDICAL care and social security bill voted out today by the House Committee on Ways and Means is a tremendous step forward for all of our senior citizens. It incorporates all of the major provisions of the administration's hospital insurance bill financed through social security which was introduced by Congressman Cecil King and Senator Clinton Anderson.
The Committee's action is an historic one--the first time that a House committee has acted favorably on a medical insurance bill for all of our older citizens. It is an action which all Americans can and should welcome.
Great credit goes to the hard-working Members of the Ways and Means Committee and especially to the distinguished Chairman, Wilbur D. Mills, for the many weeks of work to make medical care protection for the older people of our Nation a practical reality. Chairman Mills deserves special credit for his statesmanlike leadership in working out on a sound and practical basis a solution to one of the most important problems which has been pending before the Congress for nearly 15 years.
It is my hope that many Republicans will join with the Democrats in voting for this very fine bill. It is a bill which is financially sound and which will benefit the entire Nation.
Note: The bill (H.R. 6675) was approved by the President on July 30, 1965 (79 Stat. 286). For his remarks upon signing, see Item 394.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Following Committee Action on the Medicare Bill. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/242144