Health Care Support Services Paper: Medicare
Ashley Alexander
HCS/212
August 21, 2011
Barbara Williamson

Health Care Support Services Paper: Medicare Good health is important to everyone and many people are trying to find ways to maintain good health. There is a lot of people in the United States who do not have any type of health care coverage or insurance to go to the doctor to check him or herself out or to cure any current sicknesses and medical issues he or she may have. Low-income elderly people are the ones who are more likely to experience many health problems that require medical services as well as those elderly people that are living on a fixed income than those who are better off with very good income. Many of the elderly are living on a limited income and faces unexpected medical expenses that he or she cannot afford to pay for because of their income. When the elderly get sick and medical care is needed, they depend on Medicare for assistance with their medical bills because they do not have any other way to pay for their medical bills or go see a doctor. “Medicare is for people 65 or older, those who are under age 65 with certain disabilities and people of all ages with End-Stage Renal Disease” (Medicare, para.). “Medicare is a federally funded system of health and hospital insurance for persons aged 65 and older and for disable persons. The Medicare program provides basic health care benefits to recipients of Social Security and is funded through the Social Security trust fund. President Harry S. Truman first proposed a medical care program for the aged during the late 1940s, but Medicare was not enacted until 1965, as one of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs. Medicare went into effect in 1966 and was first administered by the Social Security Administration. In 1977, the Medicare program was transferred to the newly