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Current Operating Statistics Quarterly Statistics

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF

HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
JOHN W. GARDNER, Secretary

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
ROBERT M. BALL, Commissioner

OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND STATISTICS
IDA C. MERRIAM, Assistant Commissioner
Advisory Committee on Research Development
MARGARET GORDON, Chairman

E. CARY BROWN, JACOB FELDMAN
GEORGE H. HILDEBRAND, NATHAN KEYFITZ

JAMES MORGAN, EUGENE SMOLENSKY, FREDERICK F. STEPHAN

DEPOSITED BY THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGES

IN HIS MESSAGE on the State of the Union, sent to Congress on January 10, President Johnson reported that "we have brought medical care to older people that were unable to afford it. Three and one-half million Americans have already received treatment under Medicare since July." The President called for intensified effort "to give the poor a chance to enjoy and to join in this Nation's progress," and expressed his intention of asking for improvements in the social security system that would provide higher benefit amounts, a liberalized retirement test, and Medicare benefits for disabled beneficiaries.

On January 23, President Johnson sent to Congress his Message on Older Americans in which he spelled out far-reaching proposals to improve the quality of living for the growing number of the Nation's aged population. First among the proposed steps toward the goal of "an adequate income, a decent home, and a meaningful retirement for each senior citizen," were the President's social security recommendations.

The Message asked for legislation to provide:

(1) General benefit increases for current and future benficiaries: to $70 for those with minimum benefits, a minimum of $100 for workers with 25 years' coverage, at least a 15-percent increase for others on the rolls, and a boost in the special benefits for those aged 72 or over to $50 ($75 for a couple);

(2) benefits for severely disabled widows under age 62; (3) higher earnings exemptions in the retirement test: to $140 a month and to $1,680 a year;

(4) broader coverage of farm workers and social security eredits for Federal employees not eligible for civilservice retirement benefits;

(5) a 3-step increase in the taxable and creditable earnings base: $7,800 in 1968, $9,000 in 1971, and $10,800 in 1974;

(6) changes in the scheduled rises in employer and em

ployee contribution rates for cash benefits: the 1969 rate to be 4.5 percent and the rate for 1973 and thereafter to be 5 percent;

(7) extension of health insurance protection to disabled persons under age 65 who are receiving social security or railroad retirement benefits;

(8) coverage of podiatry services under the supplementary medical insurance program.

The President also stated that he was directing the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to undertake a study of the problems of including the cost of prescription drugs under the health insurance program.

"To make vitally needed changes in public assistance laws," the President recommended legislation to provide that State welfare agencies be required to raise cash payments to recipients to the level of State minimum subsistence standards, to bring these standards up to date annually and maintain them at not less than two-thirds the level set for medical assistance, and to establish