Medicare

It is a health insurance program for the elderly and disabled in the USA. It was first passed on July 30, 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson as amendments to Social Security legislation.

• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a component of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), administers Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). Along with the Departments of Labor and Treasury, CMS also implements the insurance reform provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Generally, Medicare is available for people age 65 or older, younger people with disabilities, and people with End Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant). People under 65 and disabled must be receiving disability benefits from either Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board for at least 24 months before automatic enrollment occurs. In 2003, Medicare provided health care coverage for 41 million Americans. Enrollment is expected to reach 77 million by 2031, when the Baby Boom generation is fully enrolled.

Medicare processes over one billion fee-for-service claims per year making it the nation’s largest purchaser of managed care [1]. In 2003, Medicaer accounted for almost 13 % of the entire Federal Budget. Based on the CMS projections, 33 cents of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S. is paid by Meidcare and Medicaid (including State funding). Looked at from three different perspectives, 61 cents of every dollar spent on nursing homes, 47 cents of every dollar received by U.S. hospitals, and 27 cents of every dollar spent on physician services is funded by Medicare or Medicaid.

Medicare is partially financed by a tax of 2.9% (1.45% withheld from the worker and a matching 1.45% paid by the employer) on wages or self-employed income to a specified maximum (currently there is no maximum).Medcare has several parts: Part A (Hospital Insurance), and Part B (Medical Insurance, helps cover doctors' services, outpatient hospital care, and some other meidical services that Part A does not cover). Neither Part A nor Part B pays for all of a covered person's medical costs. The program contains deductibles and co-pays (payments due from the covered individual). Previously certain medical needs such as prescriptions were excluded. Beginning in January 2006, Meidicare Part D will provide coverage for prescription drugs through a complex coverage model.

• Abdominoplasty
• Wealthy
• Liposuction
• Mesotherapy


Also see:
• Gastric Bypass
• Health Insurance
• Medicaid

• For financing of health procedures.
• For patient loans.

• This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Medicare United States".