> Medicare Part A covers a stay in the hospital for any single spell of illness or injury within a time frame of 90 days. This is known as a benefit period, and there’s no limit to the number of benefit periods you can have. But if you need to stay in the hospital for more than 90 days with the same illness or injury, you have the option of using some of your 60 lifetime reserve days. These allow you to extend your hospital stay for a higher copayment ($608 a day in 2014). You can use these days—one or more at a time, or as you need them—over the rest of your life. Once the 60 reserve days are exhausted, you would pay the hospital’s full daily charge (except for services covered under Medicare Part B, such as physician visits) if you need to stay in the hospital for more than 90 days in a benefit period.
> Medicare covers only 190 days of inpatient care in a psychiatric hospital in your lifetime.
> Medicare limits the amount of coverage you can get as an outpatient for physical or occupational therapy and speech-language pathology in any given year. In 2014 the limits are $1,920 for occupational therapy and $1,920 for physical therapy and speech-language pathology combined.
The first two are interesting, but last one you mention is not a lifetime limit, and so doesn't really belong in the discussion.
And the first one is interesting, because that 60 day "limit" is actually 60 days of extra benefits. If those 60 days didn't exist, if Medicare Part A always ended their coverage for an incident at 90 days (which would be perfectly reasonable), then there wouldn't be a lifetime limit, but I think we can safely say that the coverage is better with those 60 days than without them.
Which is to say, you kinda had to reach to come up with examples of lifetime limits.
In general, 90 day acute care stays are unusual and the reality is that you’re looking at a transition to a nursing home or rehab facilty.
Once you stop progressing and exceed that limit, at that point you’re self-funding your care until you cannot, and then become Medicaid eligible. If you live in a place with beds and have family that can fight to get you into a good facilty, you’ll love out your life there or transition to home care.
All the critiques dance around the fact that the US doesn’t have universal healthcare so there a variety of hills and valleys that people fall off of and waste billions in the process.
https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-02-2009/...
> Medicare Part A covers a stay in the hospital for any single spell of illness or injury within a time frame of 90 days. This is known as a benefit period, and there’s no limit to the number of benefit periods you can have. But if you need to stay in the hospital for more than 90 days with the same illness or injury, you have the option of using some of your 60 lifetime reserve days. These allow you to extend your hospital stay for a higher copayment ($608 a day in 2014). You can use these days—one or more at a time, or as you need them—over the rest of your life. Once the 60 reserve days are exhausted, you would pay the hospital’s full daily charge (except for services covered under Medicare Part B, such as physician visits) if you need to stay in the hospital for more than 90 days in a benefit period.
> Medicare covers only 190 days of inpatient care in a psychiatric hospital in your lifetime.
> Medicare limits the amount of coverage you can get as an outpatient for physical or occupational therapy and speech-language pathology in any given year. In 2014 the limits are $1,920 for occupational therapy and $1,920 for physical therapy and speech-language pathology combined.