FAQ Friday: The Differences between Medicare and Medicaid
b'Medicare and Medicaid are two separate, government-run programs that were created in 1965 in response to the inability of older and lower-income Americans to buy private health insurance. They were part of President Lyndon Johnson\\u2019s \\u201cGreat Society\\u201d vision of a general social commitment to meeting individual social, economic, and health care needs. Medicare and Medicaid are social insurance programs that allow the financial burdens of illness to be shared among healthy and sick individuals, and affluent and lower-income families. Medicare and Medicaid are different in several respects: they are run and funded by different parts of the government and primarily serve different groups.'