Health care barriers access among Medicare beneficiaries

Medicare is a health insurance program signed into law in 1965 under the Social Security Act, providing universal medical coverage for people age 65 and over or with disabilities. It has been 75 years since the signing of Social Security Act and 45 years since Medicare became law. Since its inception there have been many changes to the program and beneficiaries face barriers in accessing Medicare services. There has been little research on knowledge of Medicare policy rules and procedures or reasons for the limited knowledge of the Medicare program. Health literacy, language and unfamiliarity with technology have been identified as obstacles accessing Medicare coverage. The purpose of this study is to examine Medicare beneficiaries' level of understanding about the Medicare program. Thirty individuals who are currently enrolled in the Medicare program participated in the study. The participants completed a 30 question survey designed to test their knowledge of the Medicare program and Medicare services. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze survey results. The findings indicated that 10% understood the Medicare program while the other 90% thought they understood the Medicare program. However after administrating a quiz on the Medicare parts A, B, C and D, results showed they were not knowledgeable about the Medicare program. None of the socio demographic variables were found to be associated with knowledge of Medicare. The implications of the study were discussed and future recommendations for social work and social policy were provided.