b' Word Fall 2023ASSOCIATEw w w. w m i m u t u a l . c o m NewsMEDICARE andMedicare By David Leo, SupplementPresident ofINSURANCEWMI MutualInsurance Company& WMI TPAEvery couple of years,I try to write an article for the WPMA News about Medicare and Medicare Supplement (aka Medigap) insurance policies. While the Medicare world can be confusing and complicated to navigate, there arent a lot of changes from year to year so much of this article will be repetitive. For the handful of you who read my earlier article, I apologize for the stale content. For those who didnt read my earlier article, I hope you find this article interesting and helpfulor at least helpful.In the interest of full disclosure, much of the information in this article has been pirated from the official Medicare guide that is published by the government agency known as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). That publication is entitled Medicare & You 2023The official U.S. government Medicare handbook, and you can access the 2023 version of this publication at medicare.gov/publications/10050-Medicare-and-You.pdf.What is Medicare?Medicare is the federal health insurance programfor: (a) people age 65 or older; (b) people under age 65 with certain disabilities; and (c) people of any age with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a kidney transplant). Medicare covers nearly 65 million Americans or nearly 20% of the entire population of the United States. According to KFF, the overwhelming majority of those covered by Medicare (57 million) are older adults who are covered because they have reached the Medicare eligibility age of 65 years old. About 8 million Medicare participants are younger adults who are eligible due to their disabled status. WPMA News / Fall 202355'