Since the year 1966, the United States Federal Government has had a single-payer national social insurance – Medicare. This provides medical health insurance for over 50 million people in the country.

This insurance serves everyone over the age of 65, who have been legal residents of the United States for a period of at least five years continuously and have paid taxes for Medicare for a minimum of ten years. The Medicare insurance also covers people with specific disabilities and everyone with end-stage renal disease or those needing a kidney transplant, irrespective of their age.

Medicare insurance along with Medigap covers a host of services – medical expenses that include doctor visits, hospital care, preventive and long term treatment costs for mental, dental, reproductive, eye and teeth care, and so on. The Medicare insurance is made possible by the income from taxes that the Federal Government receives.

There are many different parts to a Medicare insurance policy – Part A, B,  C, and D. These part of the insurance take care of different requirements respectively and must be inferred correctly before premiums are paid for them. While one covers hospital services, another takes care of out-patient costs. The third is cost-saving for the Government and is an open scheme that permits patients to choose and experiment varied insurance plans from approved private insurance carriers, while the last part covers self-administered prescription drugs.

While a multi-payer system is available as an alternative for people to choose from many sources, the Medicare policy certainly reaches a large number of people across the nation and enables them to benefit from the Government’s insurance schemes. Having said that, one should also know that Medicare does not pay entirely for any medical expenditure, undoubtedly involves out-of-pocket costs and many services are not included at all in it.

Research about Medicare insurance plans and find out how it could be favorable for you or your loved ones.