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Medicare Benefits: A Brief History of Your Health Benefits
On July 30, 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Medicare Benefit legislation as an amendment to the Social Security Legislation. Medicare is a health insurance program for U.S. citizens at least 65 years old, or those aged younger than 65 years who suffer from certain disabilities.
U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have worked at least 10 years in employment during which they paid Medicare benefit taxes, and who are at least 65 years old, are eligible to participate in the Medicare benefit coverage.
People that qualify based on the previous two criteria are automatically enrolled for medicare on when they turn 65. To get medicare benefits before you turn 65 you must file an application.
Originally, medicare was split into 2 parts. Part A covered insurance for hospital expenses. Part B covered other medical insurance costs. Additionally 2 other parts (Part C and Part D) have been added to address other health issues.
Part A of the Medicare benefit program covers hospital stays of at least 72 hours. It also will pay for stays in a nursing home provided that the nursing home care is related to the hospital stay, the patient requires skilled nursing supervision in lieu of rehabilitation, and the Medicare benefit received in the nursing home is skilled rather than routine. Part A coverage part is usually free, having been paid for by the beneficiary's periodic payroll tax deductions.
Part B of the Medicare benefit package is optional and offers medical insurance. It covers some of the medical providers and services not covered by Part A. A Part B Medicare benefit can include a doctor's visit, a laboratory test, an x-ray, a flu vaccination, and certain outpatient procedures, to name a few.
The Part B Medicare benefit is not free. Instead, the person must choose whether or not to pay for Part B when notice of Medicare benefit eligibility is received at age 65. In 2006, the Part B monthly premium was $88.50.
Part C was instituted in 1997 and let medicare members choose to get care from private insurance plans. Those chosen private plans were used in place of Part A and Part B plans. The Medicare Advantage (MA plans) were born when the standards for private plans were modified in 2003.
On the 1st of January, 2006, Part D of Medicare was brought into existence. If you were able to get Part A or Part B you were considered eligible to receive the Part D prescription drug plan. Thanks to Part D, you could participate in many Medicare-approved, standalone, prescription drug plans.
This new Medicare Benefit also provided reduced prescription prices. Each Medicare-approved prescription drug plan varied and had certain restrictions based on location, different drugs and participating pharmacies.
Some people fear that the Medicare benefit system will eventually go bankrupt around the year 2018. The rationale is that more people are retiring and taking advantage of their Medicare benefit plan than are paying into the system. Once the Baby Boomer generation is fully enrolled in the Medicare benefit system around 2031, the membership is estimated to be 77 million persons.
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