Medicare

Medicare provides health insurance for people who:

• Are age 65 and older
• Are younger than age 65 with certain disabilities who have received Social Security disability benefits for 24 months, or have End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) or Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease). There is a five-month waiting period after a disability determination is made before a beneficiary can begin to collect Social Security disability benefits. People with ESRD and ALS, in contrast to persons with other causes of disability, do not have to collect benefits for 24 months in order to be eligible for Medicare.

To learn more about Medicare, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or visit www.medicare.gov.

If you're not eligible for Medicare, you cannot buy health insurance through a marketplace ("exchange").