Medicare and Medicaid: Components and Coverage Gaps
Medicare and Medicaid are vital programs in the U.S. health care system, but they each have their own weaknesses and strengths.
Primary Components of Medicare Medicare consists of a number of parts:
Part A: Hospital inpatient care, hospice, skilled nursing facilities, and some home health care are covered (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], n.d.).
Part B: Pays for outpatient care, preventive services, physician services, and durable medical equipment (CMS, n.d.).
Part D: Provides prescription drug coverage, which is administered by private insurance plans (CMS, n.d.).
Despite being vital, Medicare has significant gaps:
It does not pay for routine dental, vision, or hearing services, which are necessities for most seniors (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2019).
It does not pay for long-term care services like nursing home costs, leaving seniors financially exposed (CMS, n.d.).
Major Components of Medicaid Medicaid, on the other hand, istargeted at poor families and individuals:
It assures health coverage to pregnant women, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
It is the largest financier of long-term care services, such as nursing home care (CMS, n.d.).
There is flexibility in benefit design for states, which creates variation along state lines (CMS, n.d.).
Still, Medicaid also has pitfalls:
Non-expansion states have left many low-income adults in a coverage gap—they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford marketplace coverage (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2020).
It is difficult to see specialists due to lower reimbursement rates, whichlimits the beneficiaries’ choice of care (Rosenbaum, 2020).
Social Security: Preserve or Change?
Social Security remains a lifeline for millions of Americans, especially retirees, the disabled, and survivors. Its future, though, is in serious doubt due to longer life expectancies and funding shortfalls.
In my opinion, reforming the program is the best course of action. Some of the modifications that would make it more sustainable are:
Raising the Payroll Tax Cap: Currently, income above a certain level isnot taxed for Social Security. Removing or increasing this cap could generate sorely needed revenue.
Gradually Increasing the Retirement Age: Because Americans are living longer, slightly increasing the retirement age could balance the system while taking into consideration modern demographics.
Why It Matters Social Security is more than a program; it is a source of economic security for millions. For most retirees, it’s their primary source of income (National Academy of Social Insurance, 2019). Moreover, public opinion polls consistently show strong support for preserving and strengthening the system (NASI, 2019).
Reforms like those proposed above can keep Social Security alive and well for generations to come.

References
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (n.d.). Medicare benefits. Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov
Kaiser Family Foundation. (2019). Medicare’s coverage gap for dental, vision, and hearing services. Retrieved from https://www.kff.org
Kaiser Family Foundation. (2020). The coverage gap: Uninsured poor adults in states that do not expand Medicaid. Retrieved from https://www.kff.org
National Academy of Social Insurance. (2019). Strengthening social security for the long term. Retrieved from https://www.nasi.org
Rosenbaum, S. (2020). Medicaid’s evolving role in health care. Health Affairs, 39(3), 420–426. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00072