Medicare (United States)

Medicare is a health insurance program for the elderly and disabled in the USA. It was first passed on July 30, 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson as amendments to Social Security legislation.

Criticism

Like all health systems, whether funded and managed by governments or privately, Medicare faces continuing severe financing issues. In the United States, health care is a matter of intense continuing public debate. In its annual report to Congress, the Medicare Board of Trustees stated that the program's hospital insurance trust fund could run out of money before the end of the next decade. The trustees have made such projections in the past, but this one was much bleaker than the outlook reported just last year.

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Part of the cost of Medicare is fraud (See insurance fraud), which Medicare estimates costs it billions of dollars a year.

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According to an article in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, in a random sampling of questions asked to Medicare customer service representatives, 96% of the answers given were incorrect.{{mn|JAPS|1}}

Related Topics:
Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons - Customer service

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