Medicare and Medicaid Programs: Healthcare

Running head: HEALTHCARE 1
HEALTHCARE
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

HEALTHCARE 1
HEALTHCARE
Question one: Medicare and Medicaid programs
Medicare and Medicaid are healthcare programs sponsored by the US Federal
Government to help in covering the health care costs of the country’s citizens. The two programs
were founded in 1965 and are funded through taxes. The primary importance of the Medicare
program is to cover healthcare costs for United States citizens aged 65 and above, and
individuals having specific disabilities (Mcwhinney, 2019). The program's parts include
hospitalization, medical insurance, supplemental insurance, and prescription drugs coverage.
On the other hand, Medicaid is a program funded by state and federal government, to
help US low-income citizens of all ages. The two programs were therefore introduced to
minimize medical care barriers among the poor and aging populations. These two groups are the
country’s most vulnerable (Leonard, 2015). I agree with the purpose of these two programs,
because of the high number of people who have benefitted from the program. Currently, about
71 million low-income citizens are already subscribed to Medicaid. On the other hand, Medicare,
on the other hand, has an enrollment rate of 56 million. These high enrollment rates depict the
necessity of these two programs (Leonard, 2015).
Having universal health insurance coverage for all US citizens will significantly change
the health status of the country’s individuals and populations. It will remove inequality in health
care, minimize healthcare costs for all, and increase access to quality healthcare services. Also, it
will also lower medical costs for the economy (Amadeo, 2019).
Question Two
Increasing healthcare costs is one of the issues that both individuals and governments are
faced with. For example in 2018, US Citizens are said to have spent $3.65 trillion on health care.