health care services. Rather, the program provides funding for such services. Funding is through two separate provisions of the Medicare Act. Hospital services for medical conditions covered by the Act are funded under Part A at no cost to the recipient. Physicians' services and other covered procedures are funded under Part B. Funding for services under Part B is a coinsurance scheme under which recipients are required to pay an annual fee plus 20 percent of the fee levels approved by Medicare (Phelps, 1992, p. 345).
It is also important to note that Medicare was designed as a program to provide coverage for acute illnesses, as opposed to chronic ailments requiring extensive long-term care (Minihan, 1995, p. 462). Chronic ailments, in contrast to acute illnesses cannot be cured. Therefore, persons afflicted with chronic ailments "require sustained supportive health and social services as well as ongoing medical and medically related treatment" (Minahan, 1995, p. 111).
Fiscal constraints have caused the United States
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