On 30 July 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the bill that provided for doctor and hospital services for all those who paid payroll taxes who were 65 years or older who chose to enroll, regardless of income or pre-existing condition. Most of the residents of the Lykens Valley who were of age signed up and began receiving benefits as of the “effective date” that was printed on their Health Insurance Card.
“Officially,” the first two persons who signed up and began receiving Medicate benefits were former President Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess.
Prior to Medicare, those persons 65 or older either had to pay very high insurance premiums, or go without the medical care that they needed. Even with Medicare, there are supplemental insurances, deductibles, and non-covered items (such as dental), so medical care is not “free.”
The well-preserved card pictured above is one of the first issued in the Lykens Valley – to Helen [Hoffman] Dietrich, of Specktown, Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. At the time she began receiving services, she was 71 years old, and for many years had paid very high private insurance premiums.
Helen died on 26 July 1977 at the Frey Village, Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
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