Coverage

Medicare Part A in 2023: Costs and Coverage

Name: Medicare Part A | MedicareAdvantage.com
Creator: Christian Worstell
Published: 2023-08-10

by Christian Worstell
August 10, 2023
Reviewed by John Krahnert

Medicare Part A provides hospital insurance coverage. It is one-half of Original Medicare, which consists of Parts A and B.

4 things to know about Medicare Part A:

It is hospital insurance that covers inpatient hospital care and certain home care services.
It is usually premium free if you or your spouse paid Medicare taxes while working.
You must have Part A to enroll in Medicare Part B, Part C, or Part D.
Part A hospital and skilled nursing facility coverage come with deductibles and coinsurance.

Medicare Part A provides hospital insurance coverage. It is one-half of Original Medicare, which consists of Part A and Part B.

Part A is premium free for most people, and you may be automatically enrolled when you turn 65.

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Benefits

Part A is considered hospital insurance. It covers a wide variety of services, including the following:

Inpatient hospital care
Hospice care
Skilled nursing facility care
Certain limited home health services

Costs

Medicare Part A costs come in the forms of premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance.

Medicare Part A premium

Most people do not have to pay a premium for Medicare Part A coverage. The Part A premium will be free if any of the following applies to you:

You already get Social Security benefits or benefits from the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB).
You are eligible for benefits through Social Security or the RRB but have not filed for them.
You or your spouse had Medicare-covered government employment.

If you do have to pay the Part A premium, it can be up to $506 each month in 2023.

Medicare Part A deductibles and coinsurance

You may need to pay deductibles or copayments to get certain Part A services covered.

Hospital stay deductibles and copayment (2023):

$1,600 deductible per benefit period
First 60 days: No copayment
Days 61-90: $400 copayment per day
Days 90+: $800 copayment per "lifetime reserve day"
Days 90+ if you have no reserve days: Medicare covers nothing

Skilled nursing facility stay deductibles and co-payments:

First 20 days: No copayments
Days 21-100: $200 co-payments per day
Days 100+: Medicare covers nothing

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About the author

Christian Worstell is a senior Medicare and health insurance writer with MedicareAdvantage.com. He is also a licensed health insurance agent. Christian is well-known in the insurance industry for the thousands of educational articles he’s written, helping Americans better understand their health insurance and Medicare coverage.

Christian’s work as a Medicare expert has appeared in several top-tier and trade news outlets including Forbes, MarketWatch, WebMD and Yahoo! Finance.

Christian has written hundreds of articles for MedicareAvantage.com that teach Medicare beneficiaries the best practices for navigating Medicare. His articles are read by thousands of older Americans each month. By better understanding their health care coverage, readers may hopefully learn how to limit their out-of-pocket Medicare spending and access quality medical care.

Christian’s passion for his role stems from his desire to make a difference in the senior community. He strongly believes that the more beneficiaries know about their Medicare coverage, the better their overall health and wellness is as a result.

A current resident of Raleigh, Christian is a graduate of Shippensburg University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

If you’re a member of the media looking to connect with Christian, please don’t hesitate to email our public relations team at Mike@tzhealthmedia.com.