FILE - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Medicare bill in Independence, Mo., July 30, 1965. At right is former President Harry Truman. The Supreme Court's pending Idaho abortion ruling may hinge on how federal spending power might protect doctors against a state's criminal code. For guidance, the justices can look to the very beginning of Medicare in the 1960s, when the promise of federal funding finally persuaded hospitals in the Jim Crow South to desegregate. (AP Photo, File) 15432; FILE PHOTO
