Medicare Vs Medicaid

People are often confused about the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. Sometimes, they mistakenly regard Medicare as Medicaid and others think of the other way around. The worse part is if they couldn’t tell the difference at all.

Medicare is very much different from Medicaid in many aspects. Aside from the obvious difference in spelling, Medicare is a health insurance for the public. It can be enjoyed by those who have paid for the said insurance during their working years. Medicare can be used, as well, for hospital or doctor check-ups as long as you are already in your 65th year of age or greater. The focus of Medicare is primary health and it consists of two parts or packages A & B, in which the first is for hospital checks whereas the latter is for an out-patient consultations.

The blurring of the difference between Medicare and Medicaid is evident in its senior Nursing home services. The recipient will be covered for such a care under very rigid or restricted conditions. One of which is that Medicare can accommodate the patient for no longer than 100 days in the Nursing home facility. The federal government’s failure to add a third part to the Medicare package could have been one of the prime factors why this confusion exists today.
Nevertheless, Medicaid’s coverage for senior care is included in the expanded plan for the said program. This insurance pays for the prolonged admission in Nursing home facilities.

Moreover, Medicaid is a need-focused program. For you to be eligible, you first need to be evaluated if you are best suited to be assisted or not. In this case, you are going to be evaluated if you are indeed in a very tight financial or medical predicament. These positions are classified as financial and medical need respectively.

Lastly, Medicare’s policies are usually uniform across the U.S. whereas Medicaid’s coverage may have some little difference per state but generally they are just the same but only differ in their level of patient application.

Summary:
1.Medicare is for primary care for senior citizens aging 65 years and up whereas Medicaid is a need-focused program for the same age group.
2.Medicare is divided into package A (hospital check-up coverage) and B (Out-Patient coverage) whereas Medicaid is divided in either financial need or medical need.
3.Medicare covers for at most a hundred days worth of stay in the Nursing home facility whereas Medicaid can shoulder prolonged accommodations.