ABSTRACT
As part of the Social Security Amendments of 1965, the Medical Assistance program-more commonly known as Medicaid-was not high-profile legislation. Though Medicaid came late in the legislative process, after other major structural decisions had been made, for Wilbur Mills-chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the most important legislative sponsor-the Medical Assistance Program was a significant benefit for the poor and structurally important as part of his overall design for health benefits in the Social Security Amendments of 1965. The years immediately before and after World War II were important for health policy then, and ultimately, for Medicare and Medicaid. An administrative entity historically significant in linking the New Deal with postwar health and welfare policy was the Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare. The developments that led to Kerr-Mills provide an instructive example of incrementalism in health policy, revealing both the potential of categorical incrementalism as well as some of its noxious properties.
