Description
Medicare is a government national health insurance program in the United States, begun in 1965 under the Social Security Administration (SSA) and now administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It primarily provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older, but also for some younger people with disability status as determined by the SSA, including people with end stage renal disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).
In 2022, according to the 2023 Medicare Trustees Report, Medicare provided health insurance for 65.0 million individuals—more than 57 million people aged 65 and older and about 8 million younger people. According to annual Medicare Trustees reports and research by Congress' MedPAC group, Medicare covers about half of healthcare expenses of those enrolled. Enrollees almost always cover most of the remaining costs by taking additional private insurance and/or by joining a public Medicare Part C and/or Medicare Part D health plan. In 2022, spending by the Medicare Trustees topped $900 billion per the Trustees report Table II.B.1, of which $423 billion came from the U.S. Treasury and the rest primarily from the Part A Trust Fund (which is funded by payroll taxes) and premiums paid by beneficiaries. Households that retired in 2013 paid only 13 to 41 percent of the benefit dollars they are expected to receive.
No matter which of those supplemental options the beneficiaries choose—private insurance or public health plans—to make up for the shortfall of what Medicare covers (or if they choose to do nothing), beneficiaries also have other healthcare-related costs. These additional costs can include but are not limited to Medicare Part A, B and D deductibles and Part B and C co-pays; the costs of long-term custodial care (which Medicare does not consider health care); the cost of annual physical exams (for those not on Part C health plans almost all of which include physicals); and the costs related to basic Medicare's lifetime and per-incident limits.
