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By the early 1950s, it was becoming apparent that a growing number of elderly Americans had no economic protection from the increasing cost of health care.
一直到19世紀60年代早期的時候，很明顯的是，隨著醫療保險費用的增加，越來越多的美國老年人沒有經濟保障。
Most people over 65 had very low incomes and few owned private health insurance of any kind. Congress began a years–long debate on this issue of national health insurance for the elderly.
大部分超過65歲的人有極低的收入來源，而且很少會有人有任何一種私人醫療保險。國會關于老年人醫療補助的事兒展開了為期多年的討論。
Critics in Congress feared Medicare would lead to substandard and overpriced care, and felt that it should serve only the indigent.
國會上引發的那些爭論可能會引發低標準卻費用過高的醫保，而且還有一點讓人擔憂的是它可能只受益于窮人。
They also predicted that, with growing numbers participating, it would eventually bankrupt the federal Treasury.
他們也在預測，隨著越來越多的參與度，聯邦財政部最終可能會破產。
The legislative compromise that became the final Medicare Act – officially known as the "Social Security Amendments of 1965” – was part of President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" program.
立法認為,最終的醫療保險法案將正式被稱為“1965年的社會安全修正案——林登·約翰遜總統的“偉大社會”項目的一部分。
Today it protects more than 40 million Americans from the high cost of hospital care.
現今它使得超過4千萬的美國人都享受到了醫療保險，免除了就醫的高昂費用。
Much of the program's costs are covered by payroll taxes paid by workers.
項目的大部分費用都是工人的工資稅。
Yet costs quickly started to exceed expectations, and as Americans' life expectancy increased over the years, the Medicare program became even more expensive.
然后這些費用很快就都超出了人們的預期，正如這些年來，美國人的預期壽命在上漲一樣，醫保也變得越來越昂貴。
It has become a matter of national debate and a financial issue for every Congress and President since.
自此這已經變成了一個國內爭論的焦點問題，每個國會和總理的財政問題。
Today it is still one of the fastest growing items in the federal budget. Nonetheless, Medicare remains a popular program, and a well–established part of the federal government's role in our society.
如今在政府預算中醫保還是一個快速增長的款項。除此之外，醫保還是一個很受歡迎的項目，還是聯邦政府中相對完善的一部分。
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