A huge percentage of Medicaid goes to nursing homes. Medicare does not fully cover the service. You either pay out of pocket or if you’re destitute (as many elderly people are) you get Medicaid to cover the difference.

Also I want to add to this in case people don’t understand:

End of life care is a giant vacuum cleaner designed to move wealth out of families. It is incredibly depressing. Because Medicare does not fully cover nursing homes, you have basically two choices:

1. Give up a huge percentage of your family’s assets (home, retirement savings etc.) so that it never gets handed down to kids and grandkids. 2. Gift those assets early (at least five years I think) so you are technically broke and then can qualify for Medicaid.

Even if you don’t gift those assets early, many people will still run out of money because they aren’t wealthy. So they’ll also end up on Medicaid.

People have the very dangerous impression that “Medicaid is for the poor and Medicare is for the rich” and oh hell are they about to make a terrible mistake.

That's a misunderstanding that many people have.

Medicare does _not_ cover nursing and long-term care facilities for the elderly. That is covered by Medicaid.