Informative Essay On Medicaid

Medicaid is a program that helps pay for medical bills on behalf of certain groups of low- income persons. “Title XIX of the Social Security Act provides for the medical assistance commonly known as Medicaid” (O'Sullivan, 1990). This program became part of federal law in 1965. Medicaid helps make payments to medical providers for their services to allowed persons. It is one of the largest health program providing medical assistance to the poor or low income based individuals. In order for somebody to be able to receive Medicaid they must first meet some strict requirements. These requirements may be different in each state, with that being said the Federal requirements will be discussed as well as the general state requirements.
"Medicaid has generally been linked to actual or potential receipt of cash assistance under a welfare program. Thus, eligible individuals have to meet the welfare definitions of age, blindness, disability, or membership in a family with dependent children where one parent is absent or incapacitated." (O'Sullivan, 1990). These strict requirements leave out part of the population such as singles, childless couples who are not elderly or disabled. Besides falling into one of the categories that was mentioned above, they must also meet specified income and resource criteria which vary by each State.
"While the link to cash assistance has been the primary way to establish eligibility, states have been able to extend coverage to children who meet the income and resources requirements, but do not meet the definition of dependency." (O'Sullivan 1990). The other people that are affected by this policy are the providers. Providers can be the people who perform services for the Medicaid patients. They may include, but are not limited to physicians, hospital, dentists, pharmacies etc. Medicaid is not the only program that helps, with medical bills, there is also a program called Medicare.
The program Medicare is similar to Medicaid. It created in 1965, Medicare was intended to answer growing reports of poor and elderly they are suffering or dying because they lacked health insurance. Medicare has got hold of a reputation as one the ultimate government programs, a system of low-cost, taxpayer fund health care provided at the stage in life when retirees or just elders period need it
most. But the broad-reaching health care insurance system comes with costs that many seniors – including those already using the plan don't see until the bills show up (Williams, 2014). Those out-of-pocket expenses, according to professionals, can range from hundreds of dollars in monthly payments and office visit copays to six-figure bills for surgery and hospitalization for things like joint-replacement operations, a procedure that is most commonly among older Americans. “Those costs, which add up quickly, can stress or even break a household budget, particularly for retirees getting by on fixed incomes.”(Williams, 2014). Even refusing to sign up for Medicare when you first become eligible for it, experts say, “can cause a lot of pain in the wallet later on.”
"A lot of people looked at Medicare as this Promised Land – 'Everything is covered, until the end of time,'" says Nicole Duritz , vice president of health education and outreach for AARP, a nonprofit advocacy group.
"I don't think people have a great understanding of how the system works. They're surprised at how much they'll have to contribute." Compared to individual or group health insurance plans, "Medicare is unique in that it has no out-of-pocket spending limits," says Nancy Metcalfe , a health policy analyst at Consumer Reports.
Medicare plans are typically private health insurance policies that are government sponsored. Nothing is completely covered, and no expense is 100 percent paid for. Though the subsidies paid to the insurance companies help keep costs low for seniors, the plans may vary and usually require beneficiaries to pay some extra amount.
Medicare and Medicaid are two different government-run programs that were created in 1965 in response to the inability of older and low-income Americans to buy private health insurance. They were part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” vision of a general social commitment to meeting individual health care needs. Medicare and Medicaid are social insurance programs that allow the financial burdens of illness to be shared among healthy and sick individuals, and low-income
families.