‘You turn 65, you join the club.’ U.S. Rep. Richard Neal celebrates anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid Act
WILBRAHAM – U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal , D-Springfield, celebrated the coming 60th anniversary of the Medicare and Medicaid Act, contrasting the legislative achievement of President Lyndon B. Johnson with the Big Beautiful Bill Act that Neal expects will be reversed over time.
This month's legislation will impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, mostly to Medicaid and food stamps , the Associated Press has said. It will impose work requirements on able-bodied people seeking medical care, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states.
Neal spoke Monday at Life Care Center of Wilbraham, showing a video of Johnson signing the legislation on July 30, 1965, at the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.
The video is available on the website of the LBJ Presidential Library at www.lbjlibrary.org.
With 123 beds, about 60% of the center's residents are on Medicaid, said Dennis P. Lopata, senior executive director. Another 10% are covered by Medicare and the rest are private pay.
Neal said the recent bill also puts financial pressure on Medicare, the insurance program for the seniors that's an earned benefit.
"You turn 65, you join the club," Neal said. "We don't ask about any qualifications."
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that as a result of the Trump legislation, 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034.
"The actual cuts to Medicaid don't take place until after the next election," said Neal, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee. "Pretty contrived."
Health care providers and insurers are already under pressure, Neal said. But there is a chance the cuts won't happen. "My guess is that a lot of them will be – in time – changed. Because they are so unpopular," said.
Electing a Democratic majority in the House would be the way to do it, Neal said.
"Well, if we win next year, which seems likely, I intend to offer legislation to reverse all of those cuts right away across the board. A trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years. They can't be sustained."
President Johnson, riding a wave of popularity after the 1964 election, signed the bill in Missouri to honor Truman's work on health care, Neal said.
Truman had been a New Deal-era Democratic senator from Missouri before briefing becoming FDR's vice president in 1945, then president. A current Missouri senator, Josh Hawley, has proposed legislation aimed at reversing Medicaid cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill, after voting for that legislation.
"I think a 'no' vote would have been the better vote," Neal said.
Neal also spoke Monday about Social Security.
"We have always repaired Social Security and Medicare, and we always will," Neal said. "We intend to propose expanded Social Security benefits, and we will also propose how to pay for it."
Stories by Jim Kinney
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