ABSTRACT
Investment by government in better health care and better health conditions in jobs and communities can contribute to economic growth and worker productivity. This essay primarily focuses on the importance of financial access to health care in reducing inequality in
the use of health care services and improving the health of particularly vulnerable populations. Enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 as part of the Great Society represented a commitment by the federal government to assuring health care and opportunity . for the most vulnerable Americans: elderly and disabled people and low-income families. As a direct consequence, differentials in access to health care and health outcomes across different income groups narrowed markedly in the ten years from 1965 to 1974.
