Medicare.

Medicare is a federal health insurance program for individuals who are sixty-five or older, persons who have end-stage renal disease (irreversible kidney failure), and some individuals who have disabilities. In addition to age and special conditions, eligible individuals or their spouses must have been employed for at least ten years in a job in which they paid Social Security payroll taxes and must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States. Medicare was passed into law as Title XVIII of the Social Security Act of 1965. The intent of the Medicare law was to provide financial protection to elderly individuals against the high cost of illness and hospitalization.