Medicaid is a program that provides medical care to the indigent. So, somebody has to make the specific financial eligibility requirements to qualify for Medicaid, but it provides basic healthcare coverage for those who do not have any healthcare coverage at all. Medicare is an entitlement meaning, you get that regardless of your financial status. It is a benefit that anybody that has work has payment to the system through FICA and feud to taxes so that specific benefit is available regardless of your income or assets. That particular benefit is tied though to social security disability income, which is SSDI, which is completely different from SSI. Social Security Disability Income is a disability payment that is paid to people that pay into the system if they have a qualifying disability. Two years from the date of commencement of those disability payments, an injured victim can qualify for Medicare benefits. It is a way to get at the Medicare system prior to reaching retirement age.
Well, the first thing that they are going want to do is to go to the social security office and apply for disability benefits and they maybe entitled to SSDI and SSI. The only way that they are going to get Medicare benefits is if they qualify of SSDI because SSDI is the gateway to getting the Medicare benefits for those who are disabled and as SSI is the gateway for getting the Medicaid benefit so the starting point that local social security office or going to social security’s website and starting the application process for those benefits, which at the same time they can go down and apply for Medicaid. Medicare is not going to be a specific application because they are going qualify for that from receiving the social security disability income, the SSDI.
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