This week, there was a big birthday you might have missed.

Medicare and Medicaid turned 50 years old.

And that's something worth celebrating.

If one of the best measures of a country is how it treats

its more vulnerable citizens - seniors, the poor,

the sick - then America has a lot to be proud of.

Think about it.

Before Social Security, too many seniors lived in poverty.

Before Medicare, only half had some form of health insurance.

Before Medicaid, parents often had no help covering

the cost of care for a child with a disability.

But as Americans, we declared that our citizens

deserve a basic measure of security and dignity.

And today, the poverty rate for seniors is less

than half of what it was fifty years ago.

Every American over 65 has access to affordable

health care.

And today, we're finally finishing the job -

since I signed the Affordable Care Act

into law, the uninsured rate for all Americans has

fallen by about one-third.

These promises we made as a nation have saved millions

of our own people from poverty and hardship,

allowing us new freedom, new independence,

and the chance to live longer, better lives.

That's something to be proud of.

It's heroic.

These endeavors - these American endeavors - they didn't

just make us a better country.

They reaffirmed that we are a great country.

And a great country keeps the promises it makes.

Today, we're often told that Medicare and Medicaid

are in crisis.

But that's usually a political excuse to cut their funding,

privatize them, or phase them out entirely - all of which

would undermine their core guarantee.

The truth is, these programs aren't in crisis.

Nor have they kept us from cutting our deficits

by two-thirds since I took office.

What is true is that every month, another 250,000

Americans turn 65 years old, and become

eligible for Medicare.

And we all deserve a health care system

that delivers efficient, high-quality care.

So to keep these programs strong,

we'll have to make smart changes over time,

just like we always have.

Today, we're actually proving that's possible.

The Affordable Care Act has already helped secure

Medicare's funding for another 13 years.

The Affordable Care Act has saved more than nine million

folks on Medicare 15 billion dollars on their

prescription drugs

It has expanded Medicaid to help cover 12.8 million more

Americans, and to help more seniors live independently.

And we're moving our health care system toward models

that reward the quality of the care you receive,

not the quantity of care you receive.

That means healthier Americans and a healthier

federal budget.

Today, these programs are so fundamental to our way

of life that it's easy to forget how hard people

fought against them at the time.

When FDR created Social Security,

critics called it socialism.

When JFK and LBJ worked to create Medicare,

the cynics said it would take away our freedom.

But ultimately, we came to see these programs for

what they truly are - a promise that if we work hard,

and play by the rules, we'll be rewarded with

a basic measure of dignity, security,

and the freedom to live our lives as we want.

It's a promise that previous generations made to us,

and a promise that our generation has to keep.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.