medicare
...isode of the illness. An episode is called a benefit period. This period last from the time a patient is admitted to a hospital or nursing home until they are out for sixty consecutive days. The patient is responsible for a one-time fee called a deductible for hospital care for the first sixty days in a benefit period. The patient is also responsible for daily fee called a co-payment. This fee is for hospital care for the following thirty days. Medicare covers all other expenses. The hospital plan also covers skilled care in a nursing care facility for one hundred days. However, the care must be within thirty days of a hospitalization. The nursing care is free for the first twenty days, after that a co-payment for any of the next eighty days is required. This means that a person can get ninety days of hospitalization and one hundred days of nursing care. Home visits by nurses or medical technicians, and hospice care for the terminally ill are also covered by Medicare. A person can get Medicare if the have went without hospitalization or nursing care for sixty consecutive days. If a patient goes back into care after this sixty day period a new benefit period starts. Medicaid also gives people a lifetime reserve. This is made up of sixty more hospital days that can be used anytime. However a large co-payment is required. Medicare’s supplementary medical insurance plan, or Part B, is also available for most people sixty five years or older. Since this is a supplementary plan it must be accompanied by Part A. People who have this plan must pay a small deductible and a monthly premium. Medicare then pays eighty percent of any bills. This includes physicians’ and surgeons’ services, diagnostic and laboratory tests, and other services. Almost all people that get the hospital plan also get the supplementary medical plan. The money comes from general tax revenue and members’ payments. Medicaid is a health insurance program established for people with low income. This program is for people under sixty-five or people over sixty-five who have already used their Medicare benefits. The Medicaid program is funded by the federal governments and the states. If a state wants to participate in the program they must offer Medicaid to all people on public assistance. Each state determines what makes each person eligible, but they must be within the broad federal guidelines. Medicaid is normally offered to people who have an income and assets below a certain amount. The federal government pays each state about fifty to eighty percent of their Medicaid cost. Hospital care, physicians’ services, skilled nursing facility care, home health services, family planning, and diagnostic screening are covered by Medicaid. Medicaid also grew a lo...