The news is always reporting on healthcare benefits that are “given out,” through taxpayer dollars and the viewers make opinions through the biased coverage. Whether you’re watching Fox News, or CNN both news platforms have strong political views on healthcare and who should be given what. But does anyone know exactly what medicare and medicaid does or even is? We make uninformed opinions all the time but with the internet it can mean a click of a few buttons and an article with the explanation would be right there. So this can be the article that people can look at to understand what medicare and medicaid are.
What is Medicare? I typed it into the search bar on Google and hundreds of responses showed up. However, the first link is one that directs you right to the Medicare website, it’s the second link below the “people also ask for,” that is the right link. This brings you, again, to the Medicare website, but this time it is a bunch of questions explaining what Medicare is. Beginning with “What’s Medicare?” The answer explains that it’s for people over the age of 65, as well as “certain younger people with disabilities,” and people with End Stage Renal Disease. As seen on TV, the Medicare Coverage Helpline can help find out if you are covered under Medicare. From the website, it seems as though only a select few are covered but with the range 65 years and older, that includes lots of people especially as our population continues to live longer. Medicare is broken down into four parts: Part A, Part B, Part C, and Part D. Part A is hospital insurance such as “inpatient hospital stays, care in a skilled nursing facility, hospice care, and some home health care.” Part B focuses on the medical insurance with “certain doctor’s services, outpatient care, medical supplies, and preventive services” being offered. Part C is Medicare Advantage that is offered by private insurance companies. The final part of Medicare is Part D, prescription drug coverage. Prescription drugs without healthcare coverage can be extremely expensive, but with healthcare coverage it can reduce or even take away the cost. There are different plans that can be acquired through private and non-private insurance companies.
Moving on to Medicaid, in this paragraph we will be examining Medicaid and how it differs from Medicare. As well as how it is similar. November 2019 enrollment report stated that 64.5 million people were covered with Medicaid. Medicare and Medicare’s first similarity is the connection to the government. Both federally managed, Original Medicare is “managed by the federal government,” whereas Medicaid is “administered by states, according to federal requirements.” On their website it even has that Medicaid is “funded jointly by states and the federal government.” So who can partake in medicaid? Unlike Medicare, which is mainly for elderly people, Medicaid is offered to: “low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities.” Medicaid offers a lot of services, as they have to help more people than Medicare does. Getting into the full coverage of Medicaid would take another blog post, so stayed tuned for what comes next! The links for the Medicaid and Medicare websites are linked with the words so check them out for more information.
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