Long-Term Care - Health Care Policy

Long-Term Care

Long-Term Care is a part of Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is a health care program that is available to the people that are over the age of 65. Also, if a person is under the age of 65 and have certain disabilities are able to get Medicare as well. Any person that has End-Stage Renal Disease is automatically qualified for Medicare (Medicare Program - General Information", 2012). This federal program offers three parts to their program; these parts are hospital, medical, and prescription coverage. With long-term care being a service of Medicare and Medicaid, any person that needs long-term care is able to receive this service. (Morone, Litman, & Robins, 2008).

Stakeholder

The stakeholders that are affected by long-term care are the people that are over the age of 65, persons with a disability, and a person that has end-stage renal disease (Medicare Program - General Information", 2012). If this program is changed at any point this will have a bad affect on these people, depending on what the change is. The medical portion of Medicare does cover some of the long-term care service. Medicaid covers the rest of the services for long-term care. These people really depend on Medicare to help them with the cost of their medical and prescription coverage. They also depend on Medicare for the services needed, such as bathing, dressing, and using the bathroom ("National Clearinghouse For Long-Term Care Information", 2012). These are not the only services offered in long-term care, but if the patients need these services and Medicare does not cover it then the patients will not be able to afford them. If these programs does not cover certain services or prescriptions that person could be in danger. Some of these services and prescriptions could be the difference in a person's life, meaning if it is not covered they may lose their life (Morone, Litman, & Robins, 2008).

Conclusion

This shows that long-term care is a program that Medicare covers, and the people can get long-term care if the criteria are met. Long-term care is a service that some people will need, especially if they need assistant with doing stuff around the house. The people that are on Medicare can be in trouble if it does not cover the services that person needs to have done. So checking into everything that Medicare can cover would be a good step for these people that are needing long-term care, because if the patients need certain services and Medicare will not cover it then another way of getting this service has to be checked into.