A 1948 Social Security Advisory Council report suggested that additional Old Age Assistance (OAA) payments should be made available for poor people who required medical care, since the amount they were receiving was insufficient to cover it.
"Care for aged and chronically ill persons is a growing problem and in the opinion of the Council is a Federal concern. Today more than 350,000 recipients of old-age assistance are bedridden or are so infirm as to require considerable help in eating, dressing, and getting about indoors. Of them, about 50,000 are living in commercial boarding or nursing homes or private institutions. Some of these persons living in such homes or institutions are getting very unsatisfactory care. Of those living in their own homes or with others, many need prolonged treatment in medical institutions." (Advisory Council, 1948)
As an example of the problem, they reported that in Connecticut in 1946 the average cost of nursing-home care for the aged was $118 a month, far more than the maximum $50 a month OAA payment.