Medicare and Medicaid have had transformative impacts on public health and wellbeing in our country since their implementation in 1965, especially in reducing health disparities among minority populations. On October 21 the college’s Department of Health Services Administration and Policy honored the 50-year history of these programs with a symposium called “The Power to Heal: the Legacy of Medicare and Medicaid,” co-hosted with the Fox School of Business graduate healthcare management program.

College of Public Health Dean Laura Siminoff gave the opening remarks, noting that before the passage of the Medicare law, African-Americans often had little or no access to professional care for even the most serious health conditions because hospitals across the country were places of open racial discrimination.

The symposium featured presentations from scholars and practitioners across the fields of public health and medicine, each examining the struggle for equal access to healthcare in the past, present, and future.

David B. Smith, professor emeritus of healthcare management at Temple, drew from his recently-published history of Medicare as he discussed the Civil Rights Movement’s struggle to enact this transformative legislation and to enforce racial integration of the nation’s hospitals. Smith argued that the same strategies used to secure Medicare’s original victory must be used to combat our country’s current health disparities.

Also featured at the symposium were Edith Mitchell, professor of medicine and medical oncology at Thomas Jefferson University, and Michael Halpern, associate professor of health services administration and policy at Temple University. Mitchell and Halpern discussed the impact of Medicaid on health disparities, particularly in relation to access to cancer care, with Mitchell relating her experience as an African-American physician concerned about racial disparities.

Neil Calman, president, and CEO of the Institute for Family Health, also argued that racial disparities in healthcare persist today. Calman presented his experience leading research efforts which formed the basis for a recent civil rights complaint identifying segregation of care at academic health centers and teaching hospitals.