Medicare (United States)

From ArticleWorld

Medicare (United States) is a nationwide health insurance program providing health insurance to people age 65 or older, some disabled people under 65 years of age, and people with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure treated with dialysis or a transplant). Medicare, brought into being in 1965, is managed by the Federal government. However, this program started working effectively from July 1966.

What is Medicare

Medicare is operated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). It consists of two parts. Medicare Part A includes hospital insurance and Medicare Part B deals with supplemental medical insurance. People under the age 65 who are eligible to receive this service must qualify as being disabled and be receiving benefits from either the Social Security Agency or Railroad Retirement Board for at least two years before they can become eligible for this scheme.

Medicare is the largest health plan insurance in America and 33% of all medical expenses made in the country are funded by this service provider. It also constitutes a whopping 13% of the total Federal budget every year.

Problems

Medicare is beset by a set of problems that need to be very effectively dealt with since they cost the average tax payer a pretty penny in taxes. First problem is that the coffers of Medicare (United States) are fast depleting and the Medical Board of trustees have made their fears known to the Congress. They have bleakly predicted that the funds of Medicare may well run dry within the next decade.

This problem is severely aggravated by what is known as insurance fraud with which Medicare (among all other insurance organizations) is particularly plagued. It is estimated that Medicare loses a whopping $179 million to false Medicare claims.