Medicare: Its Impact on Rural America

Excerpts from the report: The Social Security Amendments of 1965 liberalize benefits for retired people, disabled workers, widows and students. Perhaps most important to most people are the hospital and medical plans that make up Medicare. Farm families and other rural residents, perhaps more than any other group in the nation, stand to benefit from Medicare. First, rural Americans will benefit more than most because a larger percentage of them are older than city residents. Today some 2.5 million farm people, 19 per cent of the total 13 million farm population, are either 65 or older or in the 55-64 age group that will qualify for Medicare within 10 years. Another 7.5 million people in these two age groups live in rural areas but don't farm. Second, rural Americans will benefit more than most because fewer of them have private health insurance. It's estimated that only 41 per cent of all farmers and only 47 per cent of nonfarm rural residents over 65 now have private health coverage.