President Obama participated in a health care reform town hall meeting with AARP members on the 44th anniversary of the passage of Medicare by Congress. In his remarks he stated the need for health care reform, due in part to spiraling medical costs that will bankrupt the Medicare trust fund within the next decade. He said that opponents of Medicare in the 1960s argued the program was socialized medicine, too costly, and would undermine health care, and yet 40 years later, “Medicare is still giving our senior citizens the care and security they deserve.”

The event was a “teletownhall,” held in a studio with questions coming from the studio audience, telephones, and via the Internet.