The U.S. Healthcare System: Essay Sample on Distinction Between Medicaid & Medicare

Introduction

The United States is one of the best countries that provide health services in the world. The nation has a wide variety of publicly owned and privately owned hospitals in its major cities and remote areas. Moreover, the health care system in the United States is unique, especially when it comes to health insurance. The nation does not have a universal healthcare system. However, its main insurance covers are Medicare and Medicaid.

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The Distinction Between Medicaid and Medicare

Medicaid is the general health care coverage program for qualified low-pay people and families in the United States. The program has developed a lot since it was made in 1965. Medicaid furthermore, the related Children's Health Insurance Program were anticipated to cover more than 60 million individuals, right around one-fifth of the populace, in the financial year 2010 at the expense of $427 billion. Medicaid is mutually financed by the administrative and state governments and is managed by states. States must pursue specific government orders, yet also, customarily have had extensive elbowroom to decide qualification and administrations (Life: Hindsight 101, 2017). This makes a cross-state variety that makes difference analysts recognize the program's impacts on individuals' conduct. It is important to note that federal governments administer the Medicaid program. Beneficiaries of Medicaid are sometimes charged small fees for some services.

On the other hand, Medicare covers individuals who have reached age 65 and above. These are people who have already retired from their jobs, and most of them are not able to pay for their health insurance policies. Unlike Medicaid, Medicare's primarily recipients are retirees. The funding is partly from payroll tax. The program is divided into different parts. For example, Medicare part A only covers patients who have been admitted to hospitals. Also, part B of Medicare includes only Outpatients, while part B allows members to choose either inpatient coverage or outpatient and part D, which only provides outpatients drug coverage. Also, unlike Medicare, Medicaid is run by the national government. The beneficiaries have deducted some money yearly for the three Medicare plans and even expected to pay the monthly premium after the yearly deductions. Important to note, Medicare is a privilege program that only covers individuals who have reached age 65 till they die, unlike Medicaid that covers only people from low-income groups from a tender age (Fisher, McClellan, Bertko, Lieberman, Lee, Lewis & Skinner, 2009).

How Medicare Has Accommodated the Needs of Americans

Before 1966, most of the more seasoned Americans who required restorative administrations needed to spend their reserve funds, depend on financing from their kids, look for welfare or philanthropy, or maintain a strategic distance from consideration. Presently, Medicare decreases the hazard for immense outofpocket restoratively uses of the elderly, particularly after they have retired from their jobs. Not the same as most open or private medicinal services protection programs for working grown-ups. The program has given satisfactory and reasonable insurance to each one of those qualified and extra assurances for impeded populaces, including delicate, more established adults, disabled, poor, and lowwage laborers (Rector & Venus, 2004).

Impact of Healthcare Reforms Initiatives on Medicare and Medicaid.

United States government has gone through health care reforms ever since the inception of Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Affordable Care Act has several health care reforms. These reforms will directly impact Medicare and Medicaid programs. For instance, the ACA will directly affect cancer patients as they would be expected to pay more money to cater for cancer treatment. Medicaid and Medicare will, therefore, have to pay more for their cancer patients. Also, health reforms have made it easier for the uninsured to access treatment at low costs and hard on Medicare and Medicaid, who are expected to lower their charges on the insured. This may negatively affect the two programs considering that they benefit primarily on premiums paid by their members.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the US healthcare system has made tremendous improvements. The various healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicare, and the new health reforms (ACA) have tremendously improved the lives of many who would not have afforded care services on their own. Even though both have their flaws, they have improved the lives of the elderly and low-income individuals in America.

References

Fisher, E. S., McClellan, M. B., Bertko, J., Lieberman, S. M., Lee, J. J., Lewis, J. L., & Skinner, J. S. (2009). Fostering Accountable Health Care: Moving Forward in Medicare: Real savings to the Medicare program could occur within five years with only modest changes in providers' spending behavior. Health Affairs, 28(Suppl2), w219-w231. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.28.2.w219

Life: Hindsight 101 (Developer). (2017, July 1). Medicare vs Medicaid: Why you need to know the difference. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_qrk4XLZM0

Rector, T. S., & Venus, P. J. (2004). Do drug benefits help Medicare beneficiaries afford prescribed drugs?. Health Affairs, 23(4), 213-222. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.23.4.213