There are two government programs that have been under fire from critics inside and outside of the government since their inception. These two government programs are Medicare and Medicaid, both of which provide healthcare services to the disadvantaged and poverty-stricken through the use of taxpayer funds. The programs were created and enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 as part of the Social Security Act, which was itself a component of Johnson’s “Great Society” program. According to popular belief the two programs are actually very different in various ways, but both Medicare and Medicaid are controlled and ran by the same government organization: the United States Department of Health and Human Services, under the branch called the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In its most basic form, Medicare can be described as a government-run social insurance agency that helps more than 44 million people (as of 2008) and costs about $432 billion a year (as of 2007), according to the information kept by the United States government. The money that is spent by the United States government on Medicare makes up about 3.2% of the entire United States of America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
On the other hand, Medicaid is more of a social welfare program for people in need. Medicaid (Read More....)
