HEALTHCARE IN THE UNITED STATES

SPECIAL POPULATIONS

The largest healthcare insurance for persons 65 and older is Medicare. Medicare was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, July 30, 1965. Before this time, only half of Americans had insurance to cover hospitalizations (Barry, 2019). The criteria to meet Medicare eligibility at age 65 includes the following:

• You are a U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident for at least five years

• You or your spouse has worked long enough for Social Security or

railroad retirement benefits

• You or your spouse is a government employee or retiree who has not

paid into Social Security but has paid Medicare payroll taxes while working (Barry, 2019).

Other ways to get coverage include paying premiums for the parts of Medicare (Table 7.2). There are four parts of Medicare health insurance: Parts A, B, C, D and Medicare Advantage. A person may be covered exclusively through Medicare or have some parts of the plans through a private health insurance approved by Medicare (see Chapter 5).

Table 7.2: Medicare Parts

Part A Hospital insurance: covers inpatient hospital stays, care in skilled nursing

facility, hospice care, some home healthcare

Part B Medical insurance: covers certain doctors’ services, outpatient care, home

healthcare, medical supplies, and preventive services

Part C Medicare Advantage: an “all in one” option that bundles Parts A, B, and D

Prescription drug coverage: adds prescription drug coverage to original Medicare, some Medicare Cost plans, some Medicare Private Fee-for-

Part D Services plans, and Medicare Medical Savings Account Plans. (These plans

are offered by insurance companies and other private companies approved by Medicare.)

Source: Medicare.gov

Attribution: Medicare.gov

License: Public Domain

7.8 INCARCERATED

The U.S. justice system houses approximately 2.3 million people throughout state prisons, federal prisons, juvenile correctional facilities, local jails, Indian Country jails, military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories (Sawyer & Wagner, 2019). The enormous burden of providing healthcare to an inmate is extremely important, not only for the overall health of the inmate but also to the health of the population once the inmate is released.

Incarcerated persons are more likely to have infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, hepatitis C, and HIV (HealthyPeople.gov, 2019). If these infectious diseases are untreated, the released inmate could potentially spread the disease to

Page | 152