| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Well, you're probably so, okay. | |
| Well, one, I'm flattered that you remember my last appearance on this on the show. | ||
| But yeah, something that the shaman was alluding to is the fact that I don't think many people appreciate that for folks who get insurance through their jobs, the federal government is subsidizing that, right? | ||
| That is tax-free to employers. | ||
| That is a huge amount of money that the federal government is spending to help offset the cost we pay as employees with job-based coverage for our insurance, right? | ||
| So we have all these debates, again, about who's deserving of Medicaid, who's deserving of Medicare, whether to increase the age of eligibility. | ||
| But we don't talk about whether the federal government should be subsidizing employer-sponsored insurance. | ||
| I mean, it is very funny what is viewed as a legitimate use of government dollars and what isn't. | ||
| All right, that's Andrea Dukas for the Center for American Progress Action Fund. | ||
| She's the health policy vice president there. | ||
| You can find out more at AmericanProgressAction.org. | ||
| Andrea, thanks so much for joining us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Joining us, Clifton Truman Daniel. | ||
| He's the grandson of President Harry Truman. | ||
| As we mentioned earlier in the program, it is the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, and he is joining us from the Amy Amy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chicago, Mimi. | |
| From Chicago. | ||
| Welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| So President Lyndon Johnson was the one that signed this into law, but he did it at the Harry S. Truman Library. | ||
| Tell us about your grandfather's involvement with Medicare and Medicaid. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Grandpa had tried for most of his two administrations to pass, excuse me, to pass universal health care legislation, along with other legislation designed to protect and support most working Americans. | |
| It was health care, housing, civil rights, a lot of different things in the fair deal. | ||
| But he could never get that passed a Republican Congress and the AMA, frankly, lobbied hard against it. | ||
| Why is that? | ||
| Do you know why the American Medical Association would be against it? | ||
|
unidentified
|
They called it socialized medicine, but my grandfather said that when people throw the word socialism or socialized about it, it just means that they're against something that benefits people who would otherwise not be able to afford it or people who have fewer resources than others. | |
| He could never, and he wrote it in his memoirs, he could never really understand opposition to health care for Americans. | ||
| And he said that that opposition mostly came for the people who could afford it and couldn't understand why people who had less money than they do should be able to afford it as well. | ||
| I'm going to show a quick portion of President Lyndon Johnson back then 60 years ago making remarks. | ||
| Former President Truman was there with him and then I'll get you to comment on it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was a generation ago that Harry Truman said, and I quote him, millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and to enjoy good health. | |
| Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. | ||
| And the time has now arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and to help them get that protection. | ||
| Unquote. | ||
| Well, today, Mr. President and my fellow Americans, we're taking such action 20 years later. | ||
| Clifton, that was 60 years ago. | ||
| Today, your grandfather was there. | ||
| What did it mean to him personally? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He was delighted. | |
| You can see from the pictures from the video and from the still pictures taken that he was in a very good mood about that because LBJ had been able to do what he hadn't. | ||
| The political climate had shifted, attitudes had shifted a bit, and Lyndon Johnson was able to get Medicare over the line. | ||
| You can see that grandpa was smiling off and on throughout that ceremony. | ||
| But he always thought that that was a basic underpinning of this country, that everybody in the country should be able to enjoy affordable health care. | ||
| A healthy population is the basis of a strong country. | ||
| He did, back in 1945, advocate for universal health care. | ||
| What do you think he would say today about where we are today with health care in the United States? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think that he would sadly probably not be surprised, but saddened by the fact that we're trying to roll back some of the protections. | |
| We don't know where it's going to end, but certainly some of the protections right now that Americans have enjoyed in the last 60 years. | ||
| It would be disheartening to him to see that, as he called it in the day, I think that, again, the people with the most, the people who don't need that, preventing people who do need it from having it. | ||
| You will be marking the anniversary tonight with a conversation at the Truman Library with Lucy Baines-Johnson, the daughter of LBJ. | ||
| Can you tell us about what's going to happen at that event and if people want to watch it, how they can do that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
They can do that by going online through the Truman Library Institute. | |
| There's a link to sign up for the online presentation. | ||
| I think Lucy's going to be doing it from Texas and I'm going to be doing it from here in Chicago. | ||
| Lucy and I have known each other for decades. | ||
| She's a great speaker and we're going to talk about not only the legislation itself, my grandfather's struggles to get it done, LBJ's finally getting it done, and also some of the personal asides. | ||
| It was a good friendship between my grandparents and the Johnsons. | ||
| And when Lucy and her sister Linda and I and their families maintain that friendship to this day. | ||
| Finally, Clifton, what do you think is the legacy of these two programs and how they have played out over these past 60 years and the impact that they've had? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, just I'll tell you personally, I'm 68 years old. | |
| I'm on Medicare. | ||
| I had health insurance through work for years, for decades. | ||
| I'm two years older than my wife, and when I rolled off, when I went on Medicare, the insurance that I had to pay for still through my employer to keep her insured for a year and a half cost me nearly $30,000 a year, cost me a big chunk of my pension. | ||
| It's much more affordable now. | ||
| I don't want to, I'm not going to run out and buy a yacht, but I sleep better at night knowing that my wife and I are covered. | ||
| And I think that all Americans should have that same ability to sleep at night and enjoy their lives. | ||
| All right, Clifton Truman Daniel, the grandson of President Harry Truman, can find out more at TrumanLibrary Institute.org. | ||
| Thanks so much for joining us today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for having me, Mimi. | |
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