Paper Example on Medicare for a Long-Term Care Plan

Introduction

Medicare is defined as a federal government program established in 1965 to offer health insurance or healthcare cover to American Natives aged sixty-five years and above. It is provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services which was extended in 1972 also to insure individuals below sixty-five years. Currently, it is approximated that seventeen percent of the Medicare beneficiaries fall under sixty-five years and are disabled. In general, those covered by Medicare are approximately fifty-nine million Americans (Parker, Regan & Petroski, 2014). Medicare is divided into four categories. Medicare part A covers inpatient hospital stays and home health as well as competence nursing and hospice care. On the other hand, Medicare part B insurances medical supplies, preventive and some doctor's services, and outpatient care. Medicare part C provides part B and part A services and additional coverage to cost of drug prescriptions0. (Wang et al., 2014). Conversely, Medicare plan D covers drug prescription and various plans such as Medicare private-fee-for-service, Medicare medical savings account, and Medicare cost plans. Therefore, to receive Medicare benefits, there are certain criteria that one must met to be eligible to receive its merits.

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There are various criteria that one must meet to be eligible for Medicare. This first condition requires that one must be of sixty-five years and above as well as have a permanent United State legal resident who must be more the five years of constant stay in the US (Yang, Huang & Phillips, 2014). Additionally, an individual can also be sixty-five years and still qualify for Medicare. However, for such individuals, they must be diagnosed with end-stage renal disease abbreviated as ERSD or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis abbreviated as ASL and also termed as Gehrig's ailment. There is still another criteria for eligibility. An individual can still be under the age of sixty-five years, but he must have enrolled to Social Security Disability merits which are valid for at least twenty-four months. Furthermore, for individuals to receive Medicare Part A that has no premium, they must have to pay into the system of Medicare (Parker, Regan & Petroski, 2014). This denotes that these individuals and their partners should have worked for over ten years before applying for Medicare. Where the condition for working at least ten years is not meet, individuals are required to pay Medicare Part A premium.

There are additionally other plans or insurances besides Medicare that one requires for a long-term care plan. The most prominent are pre-funded care plans and immediate needs annuities (Yang, Huang & Phillips, 2014). The immediate needs annuities is a plan which reimburses an individual a guaranteed revenue for life aimed at facilitating him cater for health care expenses instead of paying it in a lump sum. Pre-funded care plans, on the other hand, provides individuals with an alternative of insuring their future health care requirements even before such needs emerges. There are other essential plans which also enhance a long-term health care plane such as equity release plans and enhanced annuities. Equity release strategy enables individuals to obtain a lump sum amount of money in the form of loans which occurs where their homes act as security. This plan is appropriate where one aims at funding a care plan at present or in future. Enhance annuities is an impaired life annuity that can be bought using a pension for individuals who are overweight, experiencing a health problem, or are a smoke addict (Wang et al., 2014). A person having medical conditions for example sclerosis and Parkinson's disease can also qualify for an enhanced annuity. Another plan that enhances long-term care plan is investment and savings. This gives individuals a chance to plan ahead of time and make sure that their assets and savings are parallel to your care needs.

Conclusion

Medicare as a government program is essential but not every population living in America qualifies for it. Therefore, to qualify for various categories of Medicare, one must be of sixty-five years and above but with the exception of those having a permanent disability or you are diagnosed with end-stage renal or Lou Gehrig's ailments. Additionally, one must be a resident of where they are obtaining the Medicare plan. Additionally, pre-funded care plans, immediate needs annuities, equity realize the plan and saving, and investments are some additional plans which enable American to have a long-term care plan. Therefore, if Americans who require a long-term health care plan, choosing more than two of the mentioned plans is the best approach one can take.

References

Parker, J. L., Regan, J. F., & Petroski, J. (2014). Beneficiary activation in the Medicare population. Medicare & Medicaid Research Review, 4, E1-14. doi:10.5600/mmrr.004.04.b02

Wang, J., Qiao, Y., Shih, Y. C., Spivey, C. A., Dagogo-Jack, S., Wan, J. Y. et al. (2014). Potential effects of racial and ethnic disparities in meeting Medicare medication therapy management eligibility criteria. Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research: An Official Journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 5, 109-118. doi:10.1111/jphs.12055

Yang, Z., Huang, C., & Phillips, V. (2014). Medicare eligibility age, health disparities, and Medicare reform. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 25, 1379-1383. doi:10.1353/hpu.2014.0119