1960

Congressional passage of Kerr-Mills bill, stepping stone to Medicare. It provided increased medical assistance for welfare recipients under OAA program (Old Age Assistance program of SSA), with additional aid, called Medical Assistance to the Aged (MAA), available to people 65 and older who were of low or moderate income and ineligible for public assistance. But the measure was contingent on states’ ability to supply matching funds, and many states didn’t have the money or wouldn’t participate in the program. Plus “There were embarrassing differences in the quality of care offered, and the quantity of care also, as measured in limits on the duration of a covered hospital stay” (Cunningham & Cunningham, 131ff., quoted at 140).