What is Medicare?

Medicare is health insurance for people 65 or older. You’re first eligible to sign up for Medicare 3 months before you turn 65. You may be eligible to get Medicare earlier if you have a disability, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), or ALS (also called Lou Gehrig’s disease). 

The​ parts of Medicare are:
  • Part A (Hospital Insurance): Helps cover inpatient care in hospitals, skilled nursing facility care, hospice care, and home health care.
  • Part B (Medical Insurance): Helps cover:
    Services from doctors and other health care providers
    Outpatient care
    Home health care
    Durable medical equipment (like wheelchairs, walkers, hospital beds, and other equipment)
    Many preventive services (like screenings, shots or vaccines, and yearly “Wellness” visits)
  • Part D (Drug coverage): Helps cover the cost of prescription drugs (including many recommended shots or vaccines). You join a Medicare drug plan in addition to Original Medicare, or you get it by joining a Medicare Advantage Plan with drug coverage (Medicare Part C). Plans that offer Medicare drug coverage are run by private insurance companies that follow rules set by Medicare.

Source: medicare.gov

What Medicare Is Not

Medicare does a wonderful job providing medical care--mostly.
​
But there are some major gaps. Specific areas where you are on your own. Some of the areas Medicare does not cover include:
  • Routine vision
  • Routine hearing
  • Routine and comprehensive dental (such things as dental checkups, fillings/crowns/restorations, implants, oral surgery, etc.)
  • Home health care - perhaps a person needs help with "Activities of Daily Living" (ADL) such as dressing, bathing, eating, and toileting, and wants to receive that care while remaining in the home as long as possible
  • Assisted Living Centers - perhaps a person needs help with "Activities of Daily Living" (ADL) such as dressing, bathing, eating, and toileting, but not more intensive medical or nursing care provided in a nursing home
  • ​Long Term Care - when continuous and intensive daily care may be required . . . .