What is the difference between Medicare and Medicaid?
The short answer is that Medicaid is a poverty program and Medicare isn’t. For Medicare, it does not matter whether you are rich or poor. If you have been on Disability Insurance Benefits, Disabled Widows or Widowers Benefits or Disabled Adult Child Benefits for 24 months, you qualify for Medicare. The good thing about Medicare is that it pays doctors at a higher rate than Medicaid. Almost all doctors are happy to take Medicare patients. On the other hand, it does not begin until after a person has been on disability benefits for two years and that it generally does not pay for prescription medications.