- Medicare is a federally funded system of health and hospital insurance for U.S. citizens age sixty-five or older, for younger people receiving Social Security benefits, and for persons needing dialysis or kidney transplants for the treatment of end-stage renal disease. Typically, Medicare beneficiaries can receive medical care through physicians of their own choosing or through health maintenance organizations and other medical plants that have contracts with Medicare. Eligibility for Medicare does not depend on income; almost everyone who is sixty-five and older is entitled to coverage. Workers are not required to retire when they reach sixty-five to be protected by Medicare. Coverage under Medicare is restricted to reasonable and medically necessary treatment in a hospital; to skilled nursing home, meals, and regular nursing care services; to pay the costs of necessary special care; and for home health services and hospice care for terminally ill patients. For further information, a good starting point is the official site for Medicare.
