The backbone of American healthcare is under siege at 61

Published July 29, 2026 9:00am ET



Sixty-one years ago this week, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicaid into law with a straightforward promise: no American should be abandoned at the moment they are most vulnerable.

This 61st anniversary of Medicaid arrives at an inflection point for the program: millions of eligible Americans risk losing coverage. The best way to mark this anniversary is to protect the program’s purpose.

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