Beginning Monday, November 17, American citizens aged 65 or older have six weeks to enroll for Medicare, a United States health insurance program under the nation’s government’s administration.

The Medicare social insurance program is divided into four different parts, a Part A that covers hospital stays, a Part B that helps the elderly pay for outpatient services, a Part C offering beneficiaries the option to get private health insurance plans via which to receive Medicare benefits and a Part D that focuses on prescription drug plans. The latter, which subsidizes the cost of prescription drugs, was only enacted two years ago, on January 1^st .

During the following one month and a half, Americans eligible for the program (who have just turned 65) are required to sign up for Medicare’s Part D, irrespective of whether they are taking any such prescription drugs or not, or otherwise face major penalties.

Among those who are given the option not to enroll are the people who benefit from a similar health insurance plan, beneficiaries of an all-in-one Medicare Advantage plan, which aggregates all the types of coverage Medicare’s four parts offer in a single policy or veterans, who are provided with prescription drugs by the Veterans Administration.

For 2008, the number of eligible for Medicare Americans who enrolled for Part D amounted to 25.4 million, which translates as an increase by 6.2% from the year 2007.

The United States government currently offers elderly citizens both a website, www.Medicare.gov, and a number they can call free of charge, 800-MEDICARE, to help them choose a Part D plan that best suits their needs.