Exactly.
Medicare covers the retired and elderly, Medicaid covers the poor. Those that remain are the working and/or young to middle aged uninsured.
A large portion of the later group might choose not to be covered even though the option is available to them. They might be young and “invincible” and figure they’ll just pay out of pocket since they are healthy. Really no crisis here with these folks because they choose to not be covered. The rest?
Actually, many MediCARE beneficiaries are also on MediCAID. It’s a common tactic to apply for MediCAID to cover long-term skilled nursing facility charges, aka nursing homes, because MediCARE has a strict limit on SNF.
The topic is very complex but one thing is simple fourth grade math: people do NOT pay enough in taxes over their working years to match the claims submitted for their care on MediCARE.
Additionally, you can thank Obamacare for killing the Medicare Advantage program. Look it up.