Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks at a Meeting Marking the Inauguration of the State-Federal (Title 19) Medical Assistance Program.

March 31, 1966

Secretary Gardner, Senator Long, Congressman Mink, ladies and gentlemen:

We are delighted to have you come here to visit with us this morning. This is a very special occasion because adequate health protection and medical care once were considered great privileges in America, privileges that were limited to just those who could afford it.

But today this Nation has greater wealth, and I think it also has a greater heart. We are learning to think of good health not as a privilege for the few, but as a basic right for all. In spite of our growing concern and our great progress in health, we still produce a set of health statistics each year which are shocking for the world's wealthiest nation.

--Sixty percent of America's poor children have never been to a dentist.

--In Detroit more than a thousand preschool children lose the sight of an eye each year for lack of medical attention.

--In Boston an examination of 1,400 preschool children showed that half had serious health problems.

--Children of low-income families in America, for lack of medical care, grow up with twice as many serious eye defects, twice as many hearing losses, twice as many speech impediments, as the children of more fortunate families.

--Half again as many poor children as wealthy ones grow up crippled in America.

Now we can and we are going to change all of that. So today we launch a program that is aimed at erasing those heartbreaking figures, a program that is authorized by title 19 of the Social Security Amendments of 1965. This new partnership will operate as a State.-Federal partnership. As the States launch and operate their own tax supported medical assistance program, the Federal Government will share 50 to 80 percent of the cost.

By 1975 we hope to see this program cover all people in all age groups in every State who cannot afford the medical care they need.

North Dakota, Oklahoma, Illinois, Minnesota, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico are the first to launch programs under title 19. Nine million children and adults in these States, and nearly two-thirds of the children in Puerto Rico, are eligible for the help that this program offers.

So I have, with great pleasure, invited representatives today of these six States and Puerto Rico to come here to the White House Cabinet Room to visit with us to conclude their partnership agreements to receive the Federal grant award entitling them to draw on Federal contributions which could exceed $60 million for the quarter which began January 1.

Dr. Ellen Winston, the Commissioner of Welfare, tells me that another 24 States are at work on their plans and are hoping to be in operation by the year's end. This is good news.

I am very delighted that we have the vitality and the reactivation and the sense of mission and the deep purpose that Dr. Gardner and Secretary Cohen have brought to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. I am very grateful for the cooperation that has been given me by the leaders in the House, Chairman Mills and Congressman Byrnes; and in the Senate by Senator Russell Long, who is here this morning, and other Members of the Senate Finance Committee in this field.

If we are intense--and the slang expression is "hipped"--on any subjects around here, it is food for our bodies, for our children, and education for their minds and health for their physiques. Health, education, and food--we won't call it HEW; we will call it HEF, Dr. Gardner.

I spent a good part of this week talking to a very gracious lady who is the leader of almost 500 million people who die at almost half the life expectancy that we have. The trucks of Bombay run up and down their streets every morning picking up people who died the night before because of malnutrition and lack of food.

We have witnessed in our experiences in Vietnam the health conditions of their people. And all over the world we have a problem of health and of food and of education. This morning I pointed out we have 7 million more people working than we had 5 years ago. I got a new budget estimate this morning. Now our income is way up because people have jobs and are working, earning, and paying. We can say, really, we have 7 million taxpayers today that were probably taxeaters in some form or other only 5 years ago.

So if we will give some attention to our education, some attention to the health of our children, and some attention to correcting these deficiencies that we can spot at this early age in life, it will not only be self-satisfying to those of us who have a part in it, but it will be financially responsible and productive.

I think that we should point out that for a long time in our country we have considered public support for education a basic investment, but today we are declaring that the health of our people is just equally worthy of that support, equally important to the Nation's future, and at this particular time we declare, so that all who have ears can hear and all who have eyes can see that the world's wealthiest nation can never be satisfied until we are the world's healthiest.

This program, I think, will help us reach that goal. We hope by what we do here as a result of this innovation, as a result of this wise legislation that was passed in 1965, that we can set an example that the other nations of the world will want to emulate.

Thank you, Doctor, for coming here. We welcome those representatives of the States that are launching this program, this kickoff, and we welcome aboard all the other States that may learn about it and want to participate.

Note: The President spoke at 12:45 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House. His opening words referred to John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii. During his remarks he referred to Wilbur J. Cohen, Under Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Representative Wilbur D. Mills of Arkansas, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Representative John W. Byrnes of Wisconsin, member of the committee.

For the President's remarks at the signing of the Social Security Amendments of 1965, see 1965 volume, this series, Book II, Item 394.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at a Meeting Marking the Inauguration of the State-Federal (Title 19) Medical Assistance Program. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239469

Filed Under

Categories

Location

Washington, DC

Simple Search of Our Archives