Medicare Becomes Law President Lyndon Johnson traveled to the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, to sign the law establishing Medicare and Medicaid, recognizing that President Harry Truman had first tried to enact universal health care two decades earlier. Here, Lady Bird Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Bess Truman look on while Johnson presents Truman with a pen he used to sign the bill.
LBJ Library photo.