President Lyndon Johnson (left) signed the Social Security Amendments with former President Harry Truman and his
wife Bess present. 

On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare,
a health insurance program for elderly Americans, into law.

At the bill-signing ceremony, which took place at the Truman
Library in Independence, Missouri, former President Harry
Truman was enrolled as Medicare’s first beneficiary and
received the first Medicare card.

Johnson wanted to recognize Truman, who, in 1945, had
become the first president to propose national health
insurance, an initiative that was opposed at the time by
Congress.