Health Care Hall of Fame Past Inductees
Dr. Philip Lee
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Inducted in 2023
Medicare was an unpopular idea when Dr. Philip Lee was tasked in 1965 with helping to implement the program.
As assistant U.S. secretary for health and scientific affairs, his job was to persuade America’s providers to get onboard with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” vision. The role included enforcing provisions of the Civil Rights Act by requiring hospitals to end segregation, among other mandates, if they wanted to participate in the Medicare program.
“Working with such a dedicated group of people to make this happen was a heady experience. We saw firsthand just how much the federal government could accomplish in a very short period of time,” Lee wrote in a 2015 issue of Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging.