From the New York Times, I'm Michael Burbaro. This is the Daily.

Today, it was barely noticed when Lyndon Johnson created it 50 years ago.

Now, it's so big and so popular that a proposal to roll it back could sink the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.

The rise of Medicaid.

It's Wednesday, July 5th.

Cost America! New! Cost America! New! Cost America! New! Cost America! New! Cost America! New! Cost America! New!

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my deep misgivings about the recent healthcare proposals put forth by the Senate.

But I do have concerns, particularly in the area of Medicaid.

I have concerns about the way the Medicaid issue is being handled particularly in the expansion states I've talked about.

We want to make certain that Medicaid is a program that can survive.

The program is actually failing many, many patients and we need to fix that.

And so we need to make it so that those individuals can be treated.

Kate Zirke. I have a very simple but I fear actually a very complicated question for you. What is Medicaid?

That is a complex question, isn't it?

So Medicaid is the federal government and states program to offer health insurance or help pay the medical bills of the poor.

It now covers about one in five Americans, about 78 million people.

A lot of people. So it's a lot of people. Yeah. It covers half the births in this country.

It covers, let's see, two thirds of nursing home residents are on Medicaid. It is not just the poor anymore.

It's the disabled. It's elderly people who are in nursing homes who have maybe exhausted their savings.

So the Medicaid population now is really quite broad.

So let's roll back just a little bit.

Where did Medicaid come from originally? What is its history?

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