How many seniors qualify for Medicare/Medicaid benefits in US?
With the Baby Boomer retiring, the number of people on the Medicare rolls is expected to rise dramatically. The Social Security trust fund is expected to experience problems because of the number of people on the rolls as well. While the above statements cause for speculation, they do not answer the question of how many senior citizens in the United States are already on Medicare and Medicaid.
The question can be broken down into two parts. The first is how many seniors qualify for Medicare, the second is how many seniors qualify for Medicaid. Medicare is a federally funded program designed to help people over the age of 65 and those with a disability have access to health insurance. Medicaid is a state-run program that gives health care to disabled adults and low-income families.
The number of senior citizens who qualify for Medicare is equal to the number of people who in the country who are over the age of 65 and who receive social security benefits. As long as a person meets these two requirements, he is automatically eligible for the Medicare coverage. An estimated 39.4 million people received Medicare benefits in 2009. This 39.4 million statistic includes both people who are over the age of 65 and those who have received social security disability benefits for two years. Most of the recipients included in this number are senior citizens, however. It does not specify how many people are eligible and do not have coverage.
Medicaid covered 35.6 million people, but no statistics are available on how many of these people were senior citizens. Most of the recipients who qualify for Medicaid are not senior citizens, but rather children and adults with limited resources. An elderly person committed to a nursing home will eventually run out of Medicare benefits. The insurance program covers a nursing home care for a short period.
When Medicare runs out, a patient in a nursing home or a long-term care facility must rely on his own resources for a period of time. When the family or the patient runs out of these resources, the patient’s family or the nursing home staff may apply for Medicaid coverage from the state where the person is housed. Medicaid will cover the patient’s needs until he or she no longer needs long-term care.
When asking how many senior citizens in America qualify for each program, it is important to remember that only one of these programs is designed to cover older Americans specifically.
