Selected Impacts of the Medicare and Medicaid Programs on American Society (1965-2000)

This bachelor’s thesis examines the emergence and development of the Medicare and Medicaid programs in the United States between 1965 and 2000 and evaluates their selected social and economic impacts. Its main objective is to test the hypothesis that Medicare and Medicaid significantly improved access to health care and reduced poverty among the elderly and low-income households in the United States between 1965 and 2000. The theoretical part defines the concept of the welfare state, classifies the United States within the liberal welfare regime, and describes the historical and political context of the creation of these programs and their subsequent reforms. The empirical part uses historical data and descriptive statistics to analyze the evolution of poverty among the elderly and low-income households, including regional differences, changes in the number of insured individuals in the target groups, mortality trends, and the share of out-of-pocket payments in total health expenditures. It also examines the growth of spending on Medicare and Medicaid and their share in GDP and the federal budget. The results show that the introduction and expansion of the programs contributed to reducing poverty and lowering financial barriers to accessing health care, while at the same time leading to a long-term increase in public expenditure. The thesis thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the long term social and fiscal consequences of Medicare and Medicaid within the liberal welfare state model of the United States.