Compare And Contrast Medicaid And Medicare

Compare and contrast Medicare and Medicaid; including funding sources, fraud and/or abuse, and eligibility requirements for recipients

Medicare and Medicaid are programs that have been developed to assist Americans in attainment of quality health care. Both programs were established in 1965 and are federally supported to provide health care coverage to vulnerable populations such as the elderly, the disabled, and people with low incomes. Both Medicare and Medicaid are federally mandated and determine coverage under each program; both are run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal agency ("What is Medicare? What is Medicaid?” 2008).

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of two federally and/or state funded programs. The programs that will be discussed are Medicare and Medicaid. In this paper will be information about who receives Medicaid/Medicare, the services offered by these programs, and those long term services that are not.

According to Barton (2010) Long-term Care “emphasized continuous care over a period of at least 90 days for a range of acute and chronic conditions. Regardless of the length of time (i.e., from weeks to years), LTC is an array of services provided in a range of settings to people who have lost some capacity for independence because of an injury, a chronic illness, or a condition” (pg. 349). This is the description of someone who may have been in a debilitating car accident, an elderly person with Alzheimer’s and dementia, a person diagnosed with chronic mental illness, and individuals who are developmentally delayed or “disabled.” People who are placed in these type of long-term care facilities are usually screened using two different

The Medicare and Medicaid federal programs were put in place as a way to help the less fortunate. Individuals with severe disabilities or over the age of 65 qualify for Medicare. This program helps them with health coverage, so the disabled and elderly who have Medicare do not have to worry about their medical bills and not going to the hospital when they are sick. Medicaid is a similar program, however, it only applies to low income families who cannot provide for their children. Similar to Medicare, this program covers any health related problems and takes away the worry and troubles that come with hospital bills.

As we become older, issues with our health begin to take affect and finding ways to fund for that care is becoming even more difficult. In the article “Some Elders Must Take Drastic Measures to Obtain Long-term Care”, national magazine journalist Mary A. Fischer (2011) states that many Americans must face demeaning and disempowering choices in order to qualify for Medicaid or Medicare—federal funded health insurance programs— such as refusing to pay for a spouses institutionalization, divorce, and spending down assets. The author argues that these choices leave the healthy spouse with decreased funds to plan for their own retirement expense (Fisher, 2011). Working in the health care field for 4 years, along with my family’s own personal experiences I can relate to this article, since I have seen a variety of ways that federal funded health insurances have been unable to meet the expectations and demands of its beneficiaries.

Medicaid is a social health care program that covers nearly 60 million Americans, including children, pregnant women, seniors, parents and individuals suffering with disabilities. Medicaid is the biggest source of funding for health related services and medical needs for the people with low income in the United States. This program is funded jointly by the state and federal level governments, but it is the state’s responsibility to manage this program. The Medicaid program is not a required program that states have to use, but all 50 states have implemented this program. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and its passing in 2010, the ACA unveiled its plans to expand Medicaid eligibility to nearly all low-income adults as an addition to the other groups that fall into the Medicaid eligibility. The Medicaid program had “many gaps in coverage for adults” because it was only restricted to the low income individuals and other people with needs in their own specific category. In the past, the majority of the states who had adults that did not have children dependent on those parents were not eligible for Medicaid. These low income adults without dependent children would be without medical insurance assistance before the ACA was introduced. Medicaid is now available to all Americans under the age of 65 whose family income is at or below the federal poverty guideline of “133 percent or $14,484 for an individual and $29,726 for a family of four in 2011” (NSCL).

The new law added to a per-existing hospital provider tax, which lawmakers love because it leverages federal matching funds that help pay for the state's Medicaid program. Critics objected to the increase because it added a new tax on health insurance.

These differences primarily have to do with who runs what, who qualifies for whom, how much users pay and what services should they cover. Medicaid is a federal program that is administered separately by each individual state. This is not the only difference between it and Medicare, however. Medicaid covers low-income people who do not have the financial means to afford healthcare but limited to, while Medicare applies to everyone who has paid into the system and reached the point of eligibility. Medicare seeks to address the problem of the elderly having high medical bills, but increasingly limited means. Medicare recipients pay into Medicare through payroll or self-employment taxes. While it's possible to qualify for both at the same time, each program has its own set of qualification requirements, so you won't be able to enroll in one just because you qualified for the other

The difference between them was that the Medicaid program guarantee some health insurance for the poor and the Medicare program guarantee health insurance for the elderly. Even with

Medicare and Medicaid are two of the United States largest broken systems, which must sustain themselves in order to provide care to their beneficiaries. Both Medicare and Medicaid are funding by a joint effort between the federal government and the local state government. If and when these governments choose to cut funding or reduce spending, Medicare and Medicaid take the biggest hit. Most people see these two benefits as one in the same, two benefits the government takes out of their pay check to help fund health care. While the government does deduct a sum from paychecks everywhere, Medicare and Medicaid are very two very different programs.

Medicaid and Medicare both play important parts in paying for health care for seniors. They are, however, very different. There are many details, but here are three big differences.

This retrospective study is based on data from Medicare LDS Outpatient billing and demographic data from patients that received care in 2014. With the Medicare data, I will be analyzing the differences in patients that are treated with single-fraction and those treated with multi-fraction treatments. The factors I will be investigating are overall number of single versus multiple fraction treatments, primary malignancy, age, gender, race and region in which patients live. The key issues to be studied are the Radiation Oncologists patterns in utilization of single or multi-fraction treatment. The differing number of fractions for multi-fraction treatments will also be analyzed to determine the most common multi-fractionation scheme. Finding

Medicaid is a government program paid by the taxpayer to help people with low incomes pay for medical costs. If the average tax payer has to pay for someone else's medical bills then there should be direction from the government to the public on how to be and stay active and healthy.

One of the biggest differences is Medicaid is a state governed program and Medicare is a federal governed program. Here are some other differences: