Attempted unsuccessfully to create retirement-based Medicare
Of all his narrow losses, the most discouraging to him was the defeat of his "Medicare" bill--the long-sought plan enabling American working men and women to contribute to their own old-age health insurance program under Social Security instead of forcin
them, once their jobs and savings were gone, to fall back on public or private charity. The cost of his own father's hospitalization made him all the more aware of how impossible it was for those less wealthy to bear such a burden.
The Medicare bill was lost, and he went immediately on television to declare that this "most serious defeat for every American family" would be a key issue in the fall campaign. The 87th and 88th Congresses would in time pass more health care
legislation than any two Congresses in history--including landmarks in mental health and mental retardation, medical schools, drug safety, hospital construction and air & water pollution--but the President never got over the disappointment of this defeat
Social Security can pay for good medical care for elderly
The proposal advanced by you and by Sen. Javits would have cost $600 million -- Gov. Rockefeller rejected it in New York, said he didn't agree with the financing at all, said it ought to be on Social Security.
Let's look at bills that Vice President Nixon suggests were too extreme. One is medical care for the aged which is tied to Social Security, which is financed out of Social Security funds. It does not put a deficit on the Treasury.
Source: The First Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debate
, Sep 26, 1960
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