Part A and Part B — Hospital and Medical Coverage

Part A: Hospital Insurance in Detail

Part A generally covers:

• Inpatient hospital stays (semi-private room, meals, general nursing, medications as part of your inpatient treatment)
• Skilled nursing facility care, for up to 100 days per benefit period, following a qualifying hospital stay
• Hospice care for people with a terminal diagnosis
• Some home health care, when ordered by a doctor and provided by a Medicare-certified agency

A critical detail: Part A's skilled nursing coverage is not the same as long-term custodial care. It only applies after a qualifying inpatient hospital stay, and it's time-limited. Medicare generally does not pay for extended nursing home stays for help with daily living activities — that gap is one of the most consequential ones in Medicare, and it's why long-term care planning is often handled separately.

Part A Costs in 2026

Why You Usually Need Both

Part A alone doesn't cover doctor visits or outpatient care. Part B alone doesn't cover hospital stays. Most people need both to have functional coverage, which is why they're almost always enrolled together and referred to jointly as "Original Medicare." Delaying Part B without other qualifying coverage — like an employer plan from a large employer — can trigger a permanent late enrollment penalty, covered in full in Lesson 6.

If you're still working and wondering whether you need to enroll in Part B right away, that depends heavily on your employer's size — see our full breakdown atWorking at 65: How Employer Coverage Interacts With Medicare.

What Happens After You Meet Your Deductibles

Once you've met the Part A deductible for a benefit period, Part A generally covers your inpatient hospital costs in full for the first 60 days, with daily coinsurance kicking in for longer stays. Once you've met the Part B annual deductible, Medicare generally pays 80% of the Medicare-approved amount for covered services, and you're responsible for the remaining 20% — for as many services as you use for the rest of the year, with no annual cap on that 20% share under Original Medicare alone. Understanding this open-ended coinsurance is the single biggest reason people look at Medicare Advantage plans (with their built-in maximums) or Medigap policies (which can cover that 20%) rather than relying on Original Medicare by itself.