14.5.1: Part A
Hospital Insurance constitutes Part A Medicare. The purpose of this insurance was to prevent financial ruin for seniors from an expensive hospital stay - which many seniors may experience. Part A does not require that beneficiaries pay monthly premiums if they or their spouse paid Medicare taxes for 10 years or more. If this is not the case, they can still receive Medicare but will have to pay a monthly premium (or the premiums may be covered by Medicaid if they cannot afford it) (Shi & Singh, 2017). Medicare Part A does have a deductible that must be paid for each benefit period before the insurance covers the rest. For example in 2024: the deductible is $1632 for each stay at a hospital or skilled nursing facility, and a benefit period is any incidence separated by 60 days or more. So if a person was admitted to a hospital for a week, and then came back the next week, they wouldn’t have to pay their deductible again. However, if they had a hospital stay at the beginning of the year and then another admittance 3 months later, they would need to again pay that deductible for the second stay as well (Humana, 2023). Long-term care at a skilled nursing facility, home healthcare, and hospice care are also covered under Part A.