| Medicare is the nation's primary health insurance program for senior citizens over the age of 65, certain people with disabilities, and people of any age with permanent kidney failure. The government-run program provides health coverage to nearly 41 million people, and is a source of coverage for one in seven Americans. While Medicare provides coverage to all who qualify due to age or disability, many of its beneficiaries are low-income Americans. A survey done in March 2003 concluded that among the 38.4 million enrollees at the time, 52 percent lived at or below 200 percent of the 2002 federal poverty level. In 2003 Congress passed and the President signed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). Representing the most significant change to Medicare since its founding, the bill offered reforms ranging from changes to the private managed care option to the addition of a prescription drug benefit.CHN Issue Brief on Medicare (updated July 2004) Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Center for Economic and Policy Research Medicare Page
Families USA
Medicare Rights Center
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare => Back to Medicare Main Page | 
