Both Medicaid and Medicare are government-sponsored healthcare programs for the disabled, uninsured, and the poor. Medicaid is a social protection or social welfare program, whereas Medicare is a social insurance program. President Lyndon B. Johnson approved amendments to the Social Security Act in 1965, which established these programs (Voort, 2017). As of November 2019, Medicaid covered about 65 million people, while Medicare covered 58 million (US Census Bureau, 2019). Medicare is a three-part system that includes a hospital that covers all inpatient treatments, medical coverage for outpatients, and pharmaceutical coverage for prescription medications. Patients must pay for some medication prescription due to a cost coverage gap. Although the prescription is covered by government insurance, individuals may pay fees to meet drug bills in some cases (Lee et al., 2019). There is always a set price for inpatients, which is paid as an admission or reception fee.
Although the federal government covers the patients, the patient must cover a percentage of the cost in some cases. Because of the benefits it provides, the Social Security program in the United States should stay effective. Despite its flaws, it is nevertheless necessary to continue with the program. Even though many people think of social security as a retirement program, it also provides life insurance to the elderly and protects the disabled. In 2019, over 90% of Americans who worked in a covered area and were between the age of 21 and 64 had active social security coverage against disability (US Census Bureau, 2019). The cost of living continues to rise daily.
Benefits under the social security program, on the other hand, are guaranteed to keep pace with rising living costs. Taking advantage of the perks, a low-wage worker retiring at 65 will receive over half of his pre-retirement earnings in 2020 (Lee et al., 2019). The potential of social security to lift older people out of poverty is the best example of its value. According to statistics, by the end of 2018, about 1.8 million families were lifted out of poverty by social security benefits (Lee et al., 2019). As a result, the social security program should be preserved because the benefits outnumber the drawbacks.
References
Le, Y., Mozaffarian, D., Sy, S., Huang, Y., Liu, J., Wilde, P. E., Abrahams-Gessel, S., Jardim, T. D., Gaziano, T. A., & Micha, R. (2019). Cost-effectiveness of financial incentives for improving diet and health through Medicare and Medicaid: A microsimulation study.PLOS Medicine, 16(3), e1002761. Web.
US Census Bureau. (2019). Health insurance coverage in the United States: 2018. The United States Census Bureau. Web.
Voort, T. V. (2017).In the beginning: Medicare and Medicaid. Miller Center. Web.