Medicare and Medicaid Services

Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Health insurance coverage has been an essential element in the United States since the start of the 20th century. At first, the government provided health insurance at the state level but this proved to be ineffective. The federal government came in and provided some insurance through the Social Security Act. However, these efforts proved futile because only a small portion of the population was catered for. During and after World War II, the need for health insurance increased tremendously which led to increased private insurance. The need for federal participation in financing health insurance grew as time went on, and various legislations passed to provide a national health insurance for the citizens, especially the needy such as aged individuals and mothers. In 1965, Congress passed the Medicare and Medicaid programs as Title XVIII and Title XIX respectively, creating better national health insurance coverage. These programs are contained in the Social Security Act, and managed by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which is under the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Medicare program covers close to 96 percent of the country`s aged population, as well as people who are on Social Security because of disability. The program was intended for the aged individuals to complement the retirement, survivors, and disability insurance of the Social Security Act. Additionally, Medicare is provided to persons aged 65 or above, and they are eligible for Social Security.

It covers for inpatients hospital, skilled nursing facility, hospice care, and home health agency. Furthermore, it covers specific medical services and supplies such as physicians’ services, emergency room, laboratory tests and many others (Grabowski, 2007). Medicare is financed primarily by a compulsory payroll tax. All employees and self-employed people in the country pay taxes to support the program.
Medicaid is an extension of federal funded programs that provides cash assistance for the poor, especially dependent children and their mothers, the disabled, and the elderly. Over time, Medicaid has changed to cover more people and focus on increased access and quality health services. The services offered by the program include inpatient, outpatient, laboratories for patients, and vaccines for children and many others. Medicaid is paid by the state through a vendor payment program (Jacobson, Neuman, and Musumeci, 2017).
References
Grabowski, D. C. (2007). Medicare and Medicaid: Conflicting incentives for long‐term care. The Milbank Quarterly, 85(4), 579-610.
Jacobson, G., Neuman, T., & Musumeci, M. (2017). What Could a Medicaid Per Capita Cap Mean for Low-Income People on Medicare?. Menlo Park, Calif.: Kaiser Family Foundation.