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What some don't like, however, are the possibilities that a Medicare for All-type plan could eliminate private health insurance companies or the existing Medicare program and increase taxes, according to Hamel. Medicare for All offers a different idea at a time when many feel that the Affordable Care Act failed to provide universal health-care coverage, according to Dr.

As debate around the concept grows, more Medicare for All-type proposals are emerging with similar names: Medicare for America, Medicare Extra for All, Medicare Advantage for All, to name a few, according to Woolhandler. Woolhandler cited a bill sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont as an example of Medicare for All. That legislation advocates a single-payer plan that will cover everyone in one nonprofit public system.

A separate Medicare for All-type bill also has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Woolhandler said she sees a new system as a way of eliminating the frustrations she encounters as a primary care physician practicing in the South Bronx in New York City.

Often, the treatments or medications patients need are not available to them because of their insurance, she said. Under a Medicare for All system, health care in America would look a lot like it does in Canada, where all patients can see a doctor and generally do not have to pay a bill. Canada also spends about half what the U. When to battle your insurer Here's why the stakes are higher for women when claiming Social Security.

Katy Votava, president of Goodcare. That is because most of the current Medicare system is actually private insurance, though it is regulated by the government, Votava said. And the coverage people get from Medicare typically comes after they have paid into that system for 40 or 50 years.

Once they are covered by Medicare, patients are often confronted by high costs and confusing rules, Votava said. Skip Navigation. Investing Club. Key Points.

Health care and health-care costs rank high among the top concerns of Americans, along with the economy and terrorism. More Americans are embracing expanding health-care accessibility. Additionally, patients have the freedom to choose the doctors, hospitals, and other providers they wish to see without worrying about whether a provider is in-network.

Importantly, the legislation streamlines the health care system to negotiate drug prices and reduce exorbitant administrative waste. This growing movement for universal, single-payer health care has robust support inside and outside of Congress. Medicare for All is supported by 69 percent of registered voters including 87 percent of Democrats, the majority of Independents, and nearly half of Republicans. Additionally, over 50 cities and towns across America have passed resolutions endorsing Medicare for All.

The Medicare for All Act of is also endorsed by local, state, and national organizations that represent nurses, doctors, business owners, unions, and racial justice organizations.

For a full list of endorsing organizations, click here. Public Citizen thanks Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell, as well as the other original co-sponsors of the Medicare for All Act, for their leadership and determination in delivering health justice. Pramila Jayapal and Rep. Debbie Dingell for their leadership in guaranteeing health care is a human right. While we mourn the more than , lives lost to Covid, we rededicate ourselves to the fight to ensure that everyone is provided with high-quality health care regardless of where they live, how much money they make, or their health, immigration, or employment status.

Nurses will never rest until we get this done. For too long, doctors have watched helplessly as our patients delayed or skipped needed care — even walking out our hospital doors — because they could not afford to pay.

Imagine losing your job, but still being able to access health care for your family. Medicare for All is a necessary policy for us to address the new normal. It is not radical. It is compassionate and sensible policy making.

We can and we must build a health care system strong enough to protect us all from the next health crisis. Jayapal, Rep.

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These additional costs can include deductibles and co-pays; the costs of uncovered services—such as for long-term custodial, dental, hearing, and vision care; the cost of annual physical exams for those not on Part C health plans that include physicals ; and the costs related to basic Medicare's lifetime and per-incident limits.

Medicare is funded by a combination of a specific payroll tax , beneficiary premiums, and surtaxes from beneficiaries , co-pays and deductibles , and general U. Treasury revenue. Medicare Parts. Part A covers hospital, skilled nursing, and hospice services. Part B covers outpatient services. Part D covers self-administered prescription drugs. Additionally, Part C is an alternative that allows patients to choose their own plans that provide the same services as Parts A and B, but with additional benefits.

The specific details on these four plans are as follows:. Originally, the name "Medicare" in the United States referred to a program providing medical care for families of people serving in the military as part of the Dependents' Medical Care Act, which was passed in Eisenhower held the first White House Conference on Aging in January , in which creating a health care program for social security beneficiaries was proposed. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri.

Former President Harry S. Truman and his wife, former First Lady Bess Truman became the first recipients of the program. In , Medicare spurred the racial integration of thousands of waiting rooms, hospital floors, and physician practices by making payments to health care providers conditional on desegregation.

Medicare has been operating for just over a half-century and, during that time, has undergone several changes. Since , the program's provisions have expanded to include benefits for speech, physical, and chiropractic therapy in The government added hospice benefits to aid elderly people on a temporary basis in , [13] and made this permanent in Congress further expanded Medicare in to cover younger people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

In , under President George W. Bush , a Medicare program for covering almost all self-administered prescription drugs was passed and went into effect in as Medicare Part D. The Chief Actuary of the CMS must provide accounting information and cost-projections to the Medicare Board of Trustees to assist them in assessing the program's financial health. The Trustees are required by law to issue annual reports on the financial status of the Medicare Trust Funds, and those reports are required to contain a statement of actuarial opinion by the Chief Actuary.

Since the Medicare program began, the CMS that was not always the name of the responsible bureaucracy has contracted with private insurance companies to operate as intermediaries between the government and medical providers to administer Part A and Part B benefits. Contracted processes include claims and payment processing, call center services, clinician enrollment, and fraud investigation.

Beginning in and , respectively, these Part A and B administrators whose contracts are bid out periodically , along with other insurance companies and other companies or organizations such as integrated health delivery systems, unions and pharmacies , also began administering Part C and Part D plans.

The rates paid for both Part A and Part B type services under Part C are whatever is agreed upon between the sponsor and the provider. The expenditures from the trust funds under Parts A and B are fee for service whereas the expenditures from the trust funds under Parts C and D are capitated.

In particular, it is important to understand that Medicare itself does not purchase either self-administered or professionally administered drugs.

For Part B drugs, the trust funds reimburse the professional that administers the drugs and allows a mark up for that service.

Part A's inpatient admitted hospital and skilled nursing coverage is largely funded by revenue from a 2. Until December 31, , the law provided a maximum amount of compensation on which the Medicare tax could be imposed annually, in the same way that the Social Security payroll tax operates.

Self-employed individuals must calculate the entire 2. Parts B and D are partially funded by premiums paid by Medicare enrollees and general U. Treasury revenue to which Medicare beneficiaries contributed and may still contribute. In , a surtax was added to Part B premium for higher-income seniors to partially fund Part D. In the Affordable Care Act legislation of , another surtax was then added to Part D premium for higher-income seniors to partially fund the Affordable Care Act and the number of Part B beneficiaries subject to the surtax was doubled, also partially to fund PPACA.

The Medicare Part C program uses these same two trust funds as well at a proportion determined by the CMS reflecting that Part C beneficiaries are fully on Parts A and B of Medicare just as all other beneficiaries, but that their medical needs are paid for through a sponsor most often an integrated health delivery system or spin out to providers rather than "fee for service" FFS through an insurance company called a Medicare Administrative Contractor to providers.

Retirement of the Baby Boom generation is projected by to increase enrollment to more than 80 million. In addition, the fact that the number of workers per enrollee will decline from 3.

In response to these financial challenges, Congress made substantial cuts to future payouts to providers primarily acute care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities as part of PPACA in and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of MACRA and policymakers have offered many additional competing proposals to reduce Medicare costs further.

Cost reduction is influenced by factors including reduction in inappropriate and unnecessary care by evaluating evidence-based practices as well as reducing the amount of unnecessary, duplicative, and inappropriate care. In general, all persons 65 years of age or older who have been legal residents of the United States for at least five years are eligible for Medicare.

Specific medical conditions may also help people become eligible to enroll in Medicare. People qualify for Medicare coverage, and Medicare Part A premiums are entirely waived, if the following circumstances apply:. Those who are 65 and older who choose to enroll in Part A Medicare must pay a monthly premium to remain enrolled in Medicare Part A if they or their spouse have not paid the qualifying Medicare payroll taxes.

The coverage does not begin until 24 months after the SSDI start date. The month exclusion means that people who become disabled must wait two years before receiving government medical insurance, unless they have one of the listed diseases. The month period is measured from the date that an individual is determined to be eligible for SSDI payments, not necessarily when the first payment is actually received. Many new SSDI recipients receive "back" disability pay, covering a period that usually begins six months from the start of disability and ending with the first monthly SSDI payment.

Some beneficiaries are dual-eligible. This means they qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. In some states for those making below a certain income, Medicaid will pay the beneficiaries' Part B premium for them most beneficiaries have worked long enough and have no Part A premium , as well as some of their out-of-pocket medical and hospital expenses.

Medicare has four parts: loosely speaking Part A is Hospital Insurance. Part B is Medical Services Insurance. Medicare Part D covers many prescription drugs , though some are covered by Part B.

In general, the distinction is based on whether or not the drugs are self-administered but even this distinction is not total. All Medicare benefits are subject to medical necessity. The original program included Parts A and B.

Part-C-like plans have existed as demonstration projects in Medicare since the early s, but the Part was formalized by legislation. Part D was enacted by legislation and introduced on January 1, Previously, coverage for self-administered prescription drugs if desired was obtained by private insurance or through a public Part C plan or by one of its predecessor demonstration plans before enactment.

Part A covers inpatient hospital stays where the beneficiary has been formally admitted to the hospital, including semi-private room, food, and tests. Many medical services provided under Part A e. These coverage amounts increase or decrease yearly on the first day of the year. The maximum length of stay that Medicare Part A covers in a hospital admitted inpatient stay or series of stays is typically 90 days. The beneficiary is also allocated "lifetime reserve days" that can be used after 90 days.

Some "hospital services" are provided as inpatient services, which would be reimbursed under Part A; or as outpatient services, which would be reimbursed, not under Part A, but under Part B instead.

The "Two-Midnight Rule" decides which is which. In August , the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a final rule concerning eligibility for hospital inpatient services effective October 1, Under the new rule, if a physician admits a Medicare beneficiary as an inpatient with an expectation that the patient will require hospital care that "crosses two midnights", Medicare Part A payment is "generally appropriate".

However, if it is anticipated that the patient will require hospital care for less than two midnights, Medicare Part A payment is generally not appropriate; payment such as is approved will be paid under Part B. But, hospitals and physicians can take into consideration the pre-inpatient admission time when determining if a patient's care will reasonably be expected to cross two midnights to be covered under Part A.

Medicare penalizes hospitals for readmissions. After making initial payments for hospital stays, Medicare will take back from the hospital these payments, plus a penalty of 4 to 18 times the initial payment, if an above-average number of patients from the hospital are readmitted within 30 days.

These readmission penalties apply after some of the most common treatments: pneumonia , heart failure , heart attack , COPD , knee replacement , hip replacement. Part A fully covers brief stays for rehabilitation or convalescence in a skilled nursing facility and up to days per medical necessity with a co-pay if certain criteria are met: [43].

Many insurance group retiree, Medigap and Part C insurance plans have a provision for additional coverage of skilled nursing care in the indemnity insurance policies they sell or health plans they sponsor. If a beneficiary uses some portion of their Part A benefit and then goes at least 60 days without receiving facility-based skilled services, the day hospital clock and day nursing home clock are reset and the person qualifies for new benefit periods.

Hospice benefits are also provided under Part A of Medicare for terminally ill persons with less than six months to live, as determined by the patient's physician. The terminally ill person must sign a statement that hospice care has been chosen over other Medicare-covered benefits, e. Part B medical insurance helps pay for some services and products not covered by Part A, generally on an outpatient basis but can also apply to acute care settings per physician designated observation status at a hospital.

Part B is optional. Part B coverage includes outpatient physician services, visiting nurse, and other services such as x-rays , laboratory and diagnostic tests, influenza and pneumonia vaccinations, blood transfusions , renal dialysis , outpatient hospital procedures , limited ambulance transportation, immunosuppressive drugs for organ transplant recipients, chemotherapy , hormonal treatments such as Lupron , and other outpatient medical treatments administered in a doctor's office.

It also includes chiropractic care. Medication administration is covered under Part B if it is administered by the physician during an office visit. No prior authorization is required for any services rendered. Part B also helps with durable medical equipment DME , including but not limited to canes , walkers , lift chairs , wheelchairs , and mobility scooters for those with mobility impairments. Prosthetic devices such as artificial limbs and breast prosthesis following mastectomy , as well as one pair of eyeglasses following cataract surgery , and oxygen for home use are also covered.

Complex rules control Part B benefits, and periodically issued advisories describe coverage criteria. This hold harmless provision is significant in years when SS does not increase but that is not the case for With the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of , Medicare beneficiaries were formally given the option to receive their Original Medicare benefits through capitated health insurance Part C health plans, instead of through the Original fee for service Medicare payment system. Many had previously had that option via a series of demonstration projects that dated back to the early s.

Other plan types, such as Cost plans, are also available in limited areas of the country. Cost plans are not Medicare Advantage plans and are not capitated. Instead, beneficiaries keep their Original Medicare benefits while their sponsor administers their Part A and Part B benefits.

The sponsor of a Part C plan could be an integrated health delivery system or spin-out, a union, a religious organization, an insurance company or other type of organization. Public Part C Medicare Advantage and other Part C health plans are required to offer coverage that meets or exceeds the standards set by Original Medicare but they do not have to cover every benefit in the same way the plan must be actuarially equivalent to Original Medicare benefits.

After approval by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, if a Part C plan chooses to cover less than Original Medicare for some benefits, such as Skilled Nursing Facility care, the savings may be passed along to consumers by offering even lower co-payments for doctor visits or any other plus or minus aggregation approved by CMS.

Original " fee-for-service " Medicare Parts A and B have a standard benefit package that covers medically necessary care as described in the sections above that members can receive from nearly any hospital or doctor in the country if that doctor or hospital accepts Medicare. Original Medicare beneficiaries who choose to enroll in a Part C Medicare Advantage or other Part C health plan instead give up none of their rights as an Original Medicare beneficiary, receive the same standard benefits—as a minimum—as provided in Original Medicare, and get an annual out of pocket OOP upper spending limit not included in Original Medicare.

However, they must typically use only a select network of providers except in emergencies or for urgent care while travelling, typically restricted to the area surrounding their legal residence which can vary from tens to over miles depending on county.

Most Part C plans are traditional health maintenance organizations HMOs that require the patient to have a primary care physician , though others are preferred provider organizations which typically means the provider restrictions are not as confining as with an HMO.

In some cases, the sponsor even rebates part or all of the Part B premium, though these types of Part C plans are becoming rare. The payment formulas succeeded in increasing the percentage of rural and inner-city poor that could take advantage of the OOP limit and lower co-pays and deductibles—as well as the coordinated medical care—associated with Part C plans. In practice, however, one set of Medicare beneficiaries received more benefits than others. MedPAC does not include all beneficiaries in its comparisons and MedPAC will not define what it means by "like" but it apparently includes people who are only on Part A, which severely skews its percentage comparisons—see January MedPAC meeting presentations.

One remaining special-payment-formula program—designed primarily for unions wishing to sponsor a Part C plan—is being phased out beginning in The intention of both the and law was that the differences between fee for service and capitated fee beneficiaries would reach parity over time and that has mostly been achieved, given that it can never literally be achieved without a major reform of Medicare because the Part C capitated fee in one year is based on the fee for service spending the previous year.

The absolute number of beneficiaries on Part C has increased even more dramatically on a percentage basis because of the large increase of people on Original Medicare since Almost all Medicare beneficiaries have access to at least two public Medicare Part C plans; most have access to three or more.

Medicare Part D went into effect on January 1, It was made possible by the passage of the Medicare Modernization Act of These plans are approved and regulated by the Medicare program, but are actually designed and administered by various sponsors including charities, integrated health delivery systems, unions and health insurance companies; almost all these sponsors in turn use pharmacy benefit managers in the same way as they are used by sponsors of health insurance for those not on Medicare.

Plans choose which drugs they wish to cover but must cover at least two drugs in different categories and cover all or "substantially all" drugs in the following protected classes of drugs: anti-cancer; anti-psychotic; anti-convulsant, anti-depressants, immuno-suppressant, and HIV and AIDS drugs. The plans can also specify with CMS approval at what level or tier they wish to cover it, and are encouraged to use step therapy. Some drugs are excluded from coverage altogether and Part D plans that cover excluded drugs are not allowed to pass those costs on to Medicare, and plans are required to repay CMS if they are found to have billed Medicare in these cases.

Under the law that created Medicare Part D, the Social Security Administration offers an Extra Help program to lower-income seniors such that they have almost no drug costs; in addition, approximately 25 states offer additional assistance on top of Part D. For beneficiaries who are dual-eligible Medicare and Medicaid eligible Medicaid may pay for drugs not covered by Part D of Medicare.

Most of this aid to lower-income seniors was available to them through other programs before Part D was implemented. Coverage by beneficiary spending is broken up into four phases: deductible, initial spend, gap infamously called the "donut hole" , and catastrophic. This is just a template and about half of all Part D plans differ for example, no initial deductible, better coverage in the gap with permission of CMS, which it typically grants as long as the sponsor provides at least the actuarial equivalent value.

No part of Medicare pays for all of a beneficiary's covered medical costs and many costs and services are not covered at all. The program contains premiums , deductibles and coinsurance, which the covered individual must pay out-of-pocket.

A study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation in found the Fee-for-Service Medicare benefit package was less generous than either the typical large employer preferred provider organization plan or the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program Standard Option.

Most Medicare enrollees do not pay a monthly Part A premium, because they or a spouse have had 40 or more 3-month quarters in which they paid Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes. The benefit is the same no matter how much or how little the beneficiary paid as long as the minimum number of quarters is reached. Medicare-eligible persons who do not have 40 or more quarters of Medicare-covered employment may buy into Part A for an annual adjusted monthly premium of:.

Medicare Part B premiums are commonly deducted automatically from beneficiaries' monthly Social Security deposits. They can also be paid quarterly via bill sent directly to beneficiaries or via deduction from a bank account. These alternatives are becoming more common because whereas the eligibility age for Medicare has remained at 65 per the legislation, the so-called Full Retirement Age for Social Security has been increased to over 66 and will go even higher over time.

Therefore, many people delay collecting Social Security but join Medicare at 65 and have to pay their Part B premium directly. If you have higher income, you will pay an additional premium amount for Medicare Part B and Medicare prescription drug coverage. Part C plans may or may not charge premiums almost all do , depending on the plans' designs as approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Part D premiums vary widely based on the benefit level. Part A —For each benefit period , a beneficiary pays an annually adjusted:.

The deductibles, co-pays, and coinsurance charges for Part C and D plans vary from plan to plan. Original Medicare does not include an OOP limit. These Medigap insurance policies are standardized by CMS, but are sold and administered by private companies. Some Medigap policies sold before may include coverage for prescription drugs. Medigap policies sold after the introduction of Medicare Part D on January 1, , are prohibited from covering drugs. Medicare regulations prohibit a Medicare beneficiary from being sold both a public Part C Medicare health plan and a private Medigap Policy.

These policies are regulated by state insurance departments rather than the federal government although CMS outlines what the various Medigap plans must cover at a minimum. Therefore, the types and prices of Medigap policies vary widely from state to state and the degree of underwriting, discounts for new members, and open enrollment and guaranteed issue rules also vary widely from state to state.

As of , 11 policies are currently sold—though few are available in all states, and some are not available at all in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Wisconsin although these states have analogs to the lettered Medigap plans.

These plans are standardized with a base and a series of riders. Cost is usually the only difference between Medigap policies with the same letter sold by different insurance companies in the same state. All insurance companies that sell Medigap policies are required to make Plan A available, and if they offer any other policies, they must also make either Plan C or Plan F available as well, though Plan F is scheduled to sunset in the year Anyone who currently has a Plan F may keep it.

Medicare contracts with regional insurance companies to process over one billion fee-for-service claims per year.

For the decade — Medicare is projected to cost 6. For institutional care, such as hospital and nursing home care, Medicare uses prospective payment systems. In a prospective payment system, the health care institution receives a set amount of money for each episode of care provided to a patient, regardless of the actual amount of care. The actual allotment of funds is based on a list of diagnosis-related groups DRG. The actual amount depends on the primary diagnosis that is actually made at the hospital.

There are some issues surrounding Medicare's use of DRGs because if the patient uses less care, the hospital gets to keep the remainder. This, in theory, should balance the costs for the hospital.

However, if the patient uses more care, then the hospital has to cover its own losses. This results in the issue of "upcoding", when a physician makes a more severe diagnosis to hedge against accidental costs. Payment for physician services under Medicare has evolved since the program was created in Initially, Medicare compensated physicians based on the physician's charges, and allowed physicians to bill Medicare beneficiaries the amount in excess of Medicare's reimbursement.

The MEI was designed to measure changes in costs of physician's time and operating expenses, adjusted for changes in physician productivity. From to , the yearly change in fees was determined by legislation. This was done because physician fees were rising faster than projected. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of made several changes to physician payments under Medicare.

Firstly, it introduced the Medicare Fee Schedule, which took effect in Secondly, it limited the amount Medicare non-providers could balance bill Medicare beneficiaries. From to , adjustments to physician payments were adjusted using the MEI and the MVPS, which essentially tried to compensate for the increasing volume of services provided by physicians by decreasing their reimbursement per service. This was done because of highly variable payment rates under the MVPS.

The SGR attempts to control spending by setting yearly and cumulative spending targets. In , payment rates were cut by 4. In , payment rates were scheduled to be reduced by 4. In and , payment rates were again scheduled to be reduced. The Medicare Modernization Act P. In , the SGR mechanism was scheduled to decrease physician payments by 4.

Congress overrode this decrease in the Deficit Reduction Act P. Similarly, another congressional act held payments at their levels, and HR held physician payments to their levels, and provided for a 1. MFS has been criticized for not paying doctors enough because of the low conversion factor.

By adjustments to the MFS conversion factor, it is possible to make global adjustments in payments to all doctors. The SGR was the subject of possible reform legislation again in The American Medical Association and other medical groups opposed it, asking Congress to provide a permanent solution instead of just another delay. There are two ways for providers to be reimbursed in Medicare. Some non-participating doctors do not take assignment, but they also treat Medicare enrollees and are authorized to balance bills no more than a small fixed amount above Medicare's approved rate.

A minority of doctors are "private contractors" from a Medicare perspective, which means they opt out of Medicare and refuse to accept Medicare payments altogether. These doctors are required to inform patients that they will be liable for the full cost of their services out-of-pocket, often in advance of treatment.

While the majority of providers accept Medicare assignments, 97 percent for some specialties , [69] and most physicians still accept at least some new Medicare patients, that number is in decline. The study led by Dr. Miriam J. Chemotherapy and other medications dispensed in a physician's office are reimbursed according to the Average Sales Price ASP , [73] a number computed by taking the total dollar sales of a drug as the numerator and the number of units sold nationwide as the denominator.

Pharmaceutical company discounts and rebates are included in the calculation of ASP, and tend to reduce it. Some patients have supplemental insurance or can afford the co-pay. Large numbers do not. This leaves the payment to physicians for most of the drugs in an "underwater" state.

This procedure is scheduled to change dramatically in under a CMS proposal that will likely be finalized in October Payments are made on a quarterly basis, rather than claim-by-claim, and are handled by each area's Medicare carrier.

If the individual chooses not to enroll in Part B typically because the individual is still working and receiving employer insurance , then the individual must proactively opt out of it when receiving the automatic enrollment package. Delay in enrollment in Part B carries no penalty if the individual has other insurance e. An individual who does not receive Social Security benefits upon turning 65 must sign up for Medicare if they want it. Penalties may apply if the individual chooses not to enroll at age 65 and does not have other insurance.

For example, if they were eligible for Part A for two years but did not sign up, they must pay the higher premium for four years. Usually, individuals do not have to pay a penalty if they meet certain conditions that allow them to sign up for Part A during a Special Enrollment Period. If an individual does not sign up for Part B when they are first eligible, they may have to pay a late enrollment penalty for as long as they have Medicare.

Usually, they do not pay a late enrollment penalty if they meet certain conditions that allow them to sign up for Part B during a special enrollment period. Medicare differs from private insurance available to working Americans in that it is a social insurance program. Social insurance programs provide statutorily guaranteed benefits to the entire population under certain circumstances, such as old age or unemployment.

These benefits are financed in significant part through universal taxes. In effect, Medicare is a mechanism by which the state takes a portion of its citizens' resources to provide health and financial security to its citizens in old age or in case of disability, helping them cope with the cost of health care. In its universality, Medicare differs substantially from private insurers, which decide whom to cover and what benefits to offer to manage their risk pools and ensure that their costs do not exceed premiums.

Because the federal government is legally obligated to provide Medicare benefits to older and some disabled Americans, it cannot cut costs by restricting eligibility or benefits, except by going through a difficult legislative process, or by revising its interpretation of medical necessity.

By statute, Medicare may only pay for items and services that are "reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of illness or injury or to improve the functioning of a malformed body member", unless there is another statutory authorization for payment. Because Medicare offers statutorily determined benefits, its coverage policies and payment rates are publicly known, and all enrollees are entitled to the same coverage.

In the private insurance market, plans can be tailored to offer different benefits to different customers, enabling individuals to reduce coverage costs while assuming risks for care that is not covered.

Insurers, however, have far fewer disclosure requirements than Medicare, and studies show that customers in the private sector can find it difficult to know what their policy covers, [84] and at what cost. Medicare also has an important role in driving changes in the entire health care system. Because Medicare pays for a huge share of health care in every region of the country, it has a great deal of power to set delivery and payment policies.

For example, Medicare promoted the adaptation of prospective payments based on DRG's, which prevents unscrupulous providers from setting their own exorbitant prices. Over the long-term, Medicare faces significant financial challenges because of rising overall health care costs, increasing enrollment as the population ages, and a decreasing ratio of workers to enrollees. From to , Medicare enrollment is projected to increase dramatically, from 47 million to 79 million, and the ratio of workers to enrollees is expected to decrease from 3.

There is some evidence that productivity gains will continue to offset demographic trends in the near future. The Congressional Budget Office CBO wrote in that "future growth in spending per beneficiary for Medicare and Medicaid—the federal government's major health care programs—will be the most important determinant of long-term trends in federal spending.

Changing those programs in ways that reduce the growth of costs—which will be difficult, in part because of the complexity of health policy choices—is ultimately the nation's central long-term challenge in setting federal fiscal policy. Overall health care costs were projected in to increase by 5. In fact, since the per-capita cost of private coverage has grown roughly one percentage point faster each year than the per-capita cost of Medicare.

Since the late s, Medicare has performed especially well relative to private insurers. Much of the debate over the future of Medicare revolves around whether per capita costs should be reduced by limiting payments to providers or by shifting more costs to Medicare enrollees.

Several measures serve as indicators of the long-term financial status of Medicare. The major issue in all these indicators is comparing any future projections against current law vs. For example, current law specifies that Part A payments to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities will be cut substantially after and that doctors will get no raises after The actuaries expect that the law will change to keep these events from happening. This measure, which examines Medicare spending in the context of the US economy as a whole, is projected to increase from 3.

This measure involves only Part A. The trust fund is considered insolvent when available revenue plus any existing balances will not cover percent of annual projected costs. According to the latest estimate by the Medicare trustees , the trust fund is expected to become insolvent in 8 years , at which time available revenue will cover around 85 percent of annual projected costs for Part A services.

Each year, MMA requires the Medicare trustees to make a determination about whether general fund revenue is projected to exceed 45 percent of total program spending within a seven-year period.

If the Medicare trustees make this determination in two consecutive years, a "funding warning" is issued. In response, the president must submit cost-saving legislation to Congress, which must consider this legislation on an expedited basis.

This threshold was reached and a warning issued every year between and but it has not been reached since that time and is not expected to be reached in the — "window".

This is a reflection of the reduced spending growth mandated by the ACA according to the Trustees. Medicare's unfunded obligation is the total amount of money that would have to be set aside today such that the principal and interest would cover the gap between projected revenues mostly Part B premiums and Part A payroll taxes to be paid over the timeframe under current law and spending over a given timeframe. By law the timeframe used is 75 years though the Medicare actuaries also give an infinite-horizon estimate because life expectancy consistently increases and other economic factors underlying the estimates change.

In addition, as discussed throughout each annual Trustees' report, "the Medicare projections shown could be substantially understated as a result of other potentially unsustainable elements of current law. Popular opinion surveys show that the public views Medicare's problems as serious, but not as urgent as other concerns.

In January , the Pew Research Center found 62 percent of the public said addressing Medicare's financial problems should be a high priority for the government, but that still put it behind other priorities. The Government Accountability Office lists Medicare as a "high-risk" government program in need of reform, in part because of its vulnerability to fraud and partly because of its long-term financial problems.

Robert M. Ball, a former commissioner of Social Security under President Kennedy in and later under Johnson, and Nixon defined the major obstacle to financing health insurance for the elderly: the high cost of care for the aged combined with the generally low incomes of retired people.

Because retired older people use much more medical care than younger employed people, an insurance premium related to the risk for older people needed to be high, but if the high premium had to be paid after retirement, when incomes are low, it was an almost impossible burden for the average person.

The only feasible approach, he said, was to finance health insurance in the same way as cash benefits for retirement, by contributions paid while at work, when the payments are least burdensome, with the protection furnished in retirement without further payment. Insurers such as Blue Cross , which had originally applied the principle of community rating , faced competition from other commercial insurers that did not community rate, and so were forced to raise their rates for the elderly.

Medicare is not generally an unearned entitlement. Entitlement is most commonly based on a record of contributions to the Medicare fund. As such it is a form of social insurance making it feasible for people to pay for insurance for sickness in old age when they are young and able to work and be assured of getting back benefits when they are older and no longer working. Some people will pay in more than they receive back and others will receive more benefits than they paid in.

Unlike private insurance where some amount must be paid to attain coverage, all eligible persons can receive coverage regardless of how much or if they had ever paid in. Bruce Vladeck, director of the Health Care Financing Administration in the Clinton administration, has argued that lobbyists have changed the Medicare program "from one that provides a legal entitlement to beneficiaries to one that provides a de facto political entitlement to providers. A study by the Government Accountability Office evaluated the quality of responses given by Medicare contractor customer service representatives to provider physician questions.

The evaluators assembled a list of questions, which they asked during a random sampling of calls to Medicare contractors. As a result, MEDICARE customer service representatives CSR have seen an increase in training, quality assurance monitoring has significantly increased, and a customer satisfaction survey is offered to random callers.

In most states the Joint Commission , a private, non-profit organization for accrediting hospitals, decides whether or not a hospital is able to participate in Medicare, as currently there are no competitor organizations recognized by CMS. Other organizations can also accredit hospitals for Medicare. Accreditation is voluntary and an organization may choose to be evaluated by their State Survey Agency or by CMS directly.

Medicare funds the vast majority of residency training in the US. This tax-based financing covers resident salaries and benefits through payments called Direct Medical Education payments. Medicare also uses taxes for Indirect Medical Education, a subsidy paid to teaching hospitals in exchange for training resident physicians. At the same time the cost of medical services continue rising rapidly and many geographic areas face physician shortages, both trends suggesting the supply of physicians remains too low.

Medicare thus finds itself in the odd position of having assumed control of the single largest funding source for graduate medical education, currently facing major budget constraints, and as a result, freezing funding for graduate medical education, as well as for physician reimbursement rates.

This has forced hospitals to look for alternative sources of funding for residency slots. However, some healthcare administration experts believe that the shortage of physicians may be an opportunity for providers to reorganize their delivery systems to become less costly and more efficient.

Physician assistants and Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners may begin assuming more responsibilities that traditionally fell to doctors, but do not necessarily require the advanced training and skill of a physician.

President Bill Clinton attempted an overhaul of Medicare through his health care reform plan in — but was unable to get the legislation passed by Congress.

Learn the different ways to file a complaint about Medicare. You can submit feedback about your Medicare health plan or prescription drug plan. Submit it to Medicare using the online complaint form. Get information on how to file an appeal for a coverage or payment decision. Learn where and how to report suspected Medicare fraud, errors, or abuse. For questions about billing or other information, contact Medicare by phone or mail. Review this chart showing Medicare costs for If you do not enroll in Medicare Part B when you're first eligible and decide to enroll later, you'll pay a penalty for as long as you're enrolled in Part B.

You do not need to sign up for Medicare each year. But each year, you will have a chance to review your coverage and change plans. Learn more about your plan and benefits by creating a myMedicare. Part D of Medicare is an insurance coverage plan for prescription medication. Learn about the costs for Medicare drug coverage. Prescription drug coverage Medicare Part D is available to anyone with Medicare. Learn more about Medicare Part D. If you need more assistance paying for your prescriptions under Medicare Part D, you may qualify for the Extra Help program.

For help with specific issues, contact Medicare. You can replace your Medicare card in one of the following ways if it was lost, stolen, or destroyed:. Medicare coverage outside the United States is limited. Learn about coverage if you live or are traveling outside the United States.