[2] President Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first White House Conference on Aging in January 1961, in which creating a health care program for social security beneficiaries was proposed.

[3][4] President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments on July 30, 1965, establishing both Medicare and Medicaid.

[5] Arthur E. Hess, a deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration, was named as first director of the Bureau of Health Insurance in 1965, placing him as the first executive in charge of the Medicare program.

[12] In April 2014, CMS released raw claims data from 2012 that gave a look into what types of doctors billed Medicare the most.

[14] These guidelines came in response to then-President Trump's announcement that he would allow states to impose work requirements in Medicaid.

[19] On September 19, 2023, the Subcommittee on Health held a hearing titled "Examining Policies to Improve Seniors’ Access to Innovative Drugs, Medical Devices, and Technology."

Dora Hughes, the acting director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), defended the proposed Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies (TCET) pathway, which aims to restrict coverage for breakthrough medical devices to five reviews a year.

Various other legislative proposals were discussed during the hearing, including bills related to Medicare coverage, drug pricing, and transparency in healthcare.