Medicare is for senior citizens that are at least 65 or older that gets free medical coverage from the government. And because the government are able to help fund them the free health benefits, it helps them out when they can’t afford it themselves.
Medicare was started on July 30, 1965 which president Lyndon B. Johnson wrote into the amendment for the Social Security Act of 1965. In order for the government to help fund medicare, some of the people’s tax dollars help funded the program. As stated in one site, partial payroll taxes help funded the program. There is no compensation limit for employees but for the self employed workers, have to pay the entire 2.9% tax of net earnings but it can be deducted for income tax purposes.
The very first people to get signed up were Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess, who was the second person to get it after President Johnson signed them up. Harry S. Truman was a former president before Johnson became one. And after the amendment came into effect, it helped out so many senior citizens that needed the coverage. Not everyone were able to afford paying health insurance since there are medical procedures that could get quite expensive.
However, there are certain rules that can only be applied to people to get Medicare. For example, people that paid at least 10 years of taxes and a US resident for at least 5 years. But there are people who are under 65 and/or disabled that was able to get it as well for people that are in dire need of medical help such as people with certain diseases.
Disabled people must wait at least 2 years before they can get the medical benefits from the government which they call it the 24 month exclusion. There is one exception where they can get it faster which is if they have diseases that are listed such as a kidney transplant or end stage renal disease. But there are many beneficiaries who gets Medicare and Medicaid.
There are two parts to the original Medicare which is hospital and medical insurance. Hospital insurance covers overnight stay and include food, tests, semiprivate rooms and doctor’s fees. Must be at least 3 days that would be covered excluding the day when someone gets discharge from the hospital. And as for the medical insurance, some services and products which the hospital insurance does not cover everything. In a few cases medicare will cover the prescription drugs.
There is the option for the Medicare beneficiaries to receive Medicare by their health insurance. Known as Part C or Medicare+Choice, they were made to be more attractive to the Medicare beneficiaries by adding in coverage for prescription drugs which in turn turns into Medicare Advantage (MA) plan.
Some people do have to pay for co payment which Medicare does not cover everything. Even though they are neat to have to help cover medical costs, they should not be the only coverage to have.