How to Check Medicare Eligibility

Medicare is a health insurance program that covers millions of people over the age of 65 and disabled people under the age of 65. Medicare is not automatically given to people who meet the requirements. You will need to go through an enrollment process in order to ensure your eligibility for both Part A and Part B Medicare. Before you contact the social security office to start enrollment, you can use several tools to determine whether you can secure these benefits.

Instructions

• 1

  Consider your employment history. Generally, you or your spouse will need to work for a Medicare-covered company for a minimum of 10 years before you are considered eligible for Medicare health insurance coverage.

• 2

  Determine if you meet the age requirements. If you are not disabled, you will need to be at least 65 before you can start using Medicare. You will also need to be a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S.

• 3

  Look at the disability eligibility requirements for Medicare. Medicare considers the length of a person's disability if she is under the age of 65. If the person has received social security disability benefits for more than two years, she will be eligible for Medicare.

• 4

  Receive Medicare if you have the end stages of renal disease. You will meet Medicare eligibility, as well, if you have permanent kidney failure. The person will require a transplant or need to receive dialysis.

• 5

  Use the My Medicare Enrollment tool on the Medicare website. This wizard will ask you a series of questions in order to determine your Medicare eligibility. At the end of the wizard, it will let you know based on your answers what your status is. You can then proceed to enroll in both parts of the Medicare insurance plan.