Comparison Between Medicare and Medicaid - Essay Example

"Comparison Between Medicare and Medicaid" is a wonderful example of a paper on the health system. To be very general about both, Medicare and Medicaid, Medicare is an insurance program for people who are 65 or older in age, however, it also includes people with disabilities and kidney diseases, but not all of them are to be treated under it. The eligibility to be recognized under Medicare depends upon the age and disability only, whereas Medicaid is a program for people who are quite much underprivileged and having low income and more medical bills, also the terms of services being provided under Medicaid are decided by the states themselves.

The eligibility for being treated under Medicaid depends on the person’s age, disability, family status, and the income and resources being provided to the person. Medicare facilities are being divided into two phases, in the first phase, it provides inpatient facilities, hospital, and nursing facilities to the people under treatment, however, it does not provide all the facilities required by the old people and people with disabilities. In the second phase, it provides outpatient services, physicians, and medical supplies such as equipment to the people under treatment.

As long as we are talking about Medicaid, we cannot discuss it at an equal level as various states have different decisions on it, each one of them has its own program, but every state’s program should work for inpatient and outpatient hospital services, x-ray services, physicians services, laboratory services, nursing facilities, home health services and many of the optional services.The Eligibility about Medicare and Medicaid are different, in Medicare, the individual has to be at least 65 or older with generous working history in the social security system, if the person is under the age of 65, then he must have taken the social security disability benefits for two years to be eligible, related to the last point also those people can get benefit from inpatient service who are at the end stage of kidney disease.

People over the age of 65, not meeting the above criteria can purchase the services being provided to them under phase one, however, all the people using services mentioned under phase two have to pay some premium. In order to be eligible to have Medicaid services, the individual has to be counted under the class of the society, which is considered to be an underprivileged class, by the state, also the people who are 65 or older, people under the age of 65 having disabilities, children, children’s parents in some case and pregnant women.

The other criteria that should be met by the individual are that he should not have done any transfer of assets, such as giving someone some money or asset without getting its fair value, until and unless it has been given to disabled people or spouse. If a person is seeking help for Medicaid, then it is better to consult some attorney, as they have more information about the rules and regulations.“Medicare eligibility is never based on how much money a beneficiary has, the value of other assets owned, or whether the beneficiary has given money away at any time.

Medicaid is means-tested and does consider an applicant’s assets and, in some instances, whether assets were given away to qualify for Medicaid”(web).