The Changes Medicare Needs

As we become older, issues with our health begin to take affect and finding ways to fund for that care is becoming even more difficult. In the article “Some Elders Must Take Drastic Measures to Obtain Long-term Care”, national magazine journalist Mary A. Fischer (2011) states that many Americans must face demeaning and disempowering choices in order to qualify for Medicaid or Medicare—federal funded health insurance programs— such as refusing to pay for a spouses institutionalization, divorce, and spending down assets. The author argues that these choices leave the healthy spouse with decreased funds to plan for their own retirement expense (Fisher, 2011). Working in the health care field for 4 years, along with my family’s own personal experiences I can relate to this article, since I have seen a variety of ways that federal funded health insurances have been unable to meet the expectations and demands of its beneficiaries.

Since the late 1980s, Medicare has reimbursed physician services using the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which encompasses 10,000 procedure codes. Each code is assigned resource-based relative value units (RVUs), which are designed to reflect physician work, practice expense, and malpractice expense. To adjust for local differences in cost of living, each RVU is modified using geographic practice cost indexes (GPCIs) and then converted to dollars using a “conversion factor.” This system rewards physicians who produce a high volume of services; not surprisingly, Medicare Part B expenditures have grown rapidly.

Decrease in funding is another economic challenge in health care. The amount of finances coming from various sources not just the

The Medicare bill was signed into law on July 30, 1965 by President Johnson. The signage came long after an attempt by President Truman to develop a national insurance fund that could be utilized by all Americans. During the signing of the bill, President Johnson explained that with the Medicare program an individual can insure themselves against illness that may present during their senior years. Additionally, he commented that there were more than 18 million low income Americans who are greater than 65 years of age and cannot afford to treat their illnesses. The Medicare program is overseen by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and has evolved over time. Medicare now covers individuals under the age of 65 who

Medicare may not be perfect but until this program is changed it is what we have currently. Medicare has gone through changes since its inception in 1965. The most significant legislative change to Medicare--called the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA--was signed into law President George W. Bush, on December 8, 2003 (CMS, 2013). In a country with a complex healthcare system, a healthcare system that is a hot political stand for every presidential candidate and for each side to have valid arguments for and against is to be expected. But to say that Medicare is heading for disaster can be a stretch. Baby boomers who are entering Medicare eligibility age should not fret; there will be doctors there to service them and Medicare to pay those doctors.

I have to include this for the sake of completeness. Most people know what Medicare is because they have been paying into it for years. This is something you will qualify for when you turn 65. The main thing to be said about Medicare is that it is the best deal for senior around, so you need to sign up for it as soon as you become eligible. Also, during the enrollment period, you need to consider buying a supplemental insurance policy. Medicare only pays approximately 80% of your medical bills. A good supplemental policy will help pay much of the rest of the bill. If you are too poor to buy a supplemental policy, you may qualify for Medicaid. If you are currently enrolled in Medicare, it is possible to use Medicaid as supplemental

Medicare changed overtime and in 1983 adopted the Prospective Payment Plan. PPS was designed to pay a facility a lump some to provide services for a set amount of patients covered by Medicare. One of the reasons behind it was to encourage health care practitioners to proved services in a timely manner in order to shorten the rehabilitation time of an individual.

Notably, the elderly populace is growing rapidly, and will reach 3.4 million or 12.8% of the population. Eventually, in the next thirty years older adults will comprise of 20% of the total population due to the aging of 76 million baby boomers (Olson, 2001). Seeing that, entitlement programs and means-tested benefits, are presented, in order to bolster this increment of older adults. Accordingly, around 96% of the American workforce is secured by Social Security and it is likewise estimated that 58 million American will receive a total of $816 billion in Social Security benefits (Moody and Sasser, 2015). In fact, today 56 million or 17% of the population is enlisted in Medicare (Leonard, 2015). Therefore, this has presented an open deliberation about the eventual fate of Medicare and Social Security and regardless of whether changing Medicare and Social Security to means-tested benefits, instead of entitlement programs can resolve the policy issues.

Medicare is our country’s health insurance program for people age 65 or older. Certain people younger than age 65 can qualify for Medicare, too, including those with disabilities and those who have permanent kidney failure. There are several changes for Medicare enrollees in 2017. The average increase is more than $4/month, and average premiums will be about $109/month for about 70 percent of enrollees. But the exact amount they’ll pay will vary depending on the dollar amount of the cost of living adjustment on their Social Security checks.

A debate discussed on a topic “RESOLVED: Medicare should be changed from a guaranteed health care benefit program into one that offers premium support for private insurance” was held on April 6, 2017, at Hunter Silberman campus room 303. Chaired and anchored by Professor Michele J. Siegel, the debate explores the pros and cons of “RESOLVED: Medicare should be changed from a guaranteed health care benefit program into one that offers premium support for private insurance.” There was two participating groups: one that spoke for the motion and another that talked against the motion. In the first place, Professor Siegel selected the participants and set the proposal for the debate. I was on the con's side of the debate, and before the debate,

Medicare is one of the largest government-sponsored health insurance program in the United States. Medicare was established in 1965 under the Title XVIII of the Social Security. Its main goal was to provide medical coverage to millions of individuals over the age of 65 that was being denied by private insurance. Private insurance denied them either because of their age or preexisting conditions. On the other hand people could not afford private insurance. In order to be eligible to receive Medicare one of these factors must apply:

As stated above, 11.4% of the population is still uninsured or under-insured. Of these patients, 40% have outstanding medical bills that will most likely go unpaid to the providers (3). This equated to $74.9 billion in 2013 of total uncompensated care across hospital systems and community providers (4). Not surprisingly, hospitals took the brunt of this cost at 60%, equaling $45 billion in uncompensated care. This raises the question of whether providers or other organizations can supplement the already subsidized monthly premiums. In theory, this model would be a win-win for the patient and provider, such that the patient stays covered and the provider is reimbursed for their

In addition, the article highlighted the issue of litigation and policy context under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA’s) preemption provision. It stated that “when a law or legal action involves the administration of plan benefits, such as a state law mandating certain benefits or a patient’s challenge to the denial of a plan benefit, ERISA preemption is triggered” (Jacobson, 1999). Therefore, the states block the litigation against the managed care organizations. Lastly, the courts and public policy have been a challenge of the implementation of cost containment initiatives. Some prominent commentators have been arguing for years that health care delivery should be guided by market principles as determined through contractual

What is the evolution of Medicare? In 1965, Congress passes Social Security Amendments of 1965; Medicare was made to give wellbeing protection to the country's seniors age 65 and older and Medicaid for the poor started July 1, 1966. A Timeline serves as a visual course of events of Medicare's history, including the verbal confrontation that prompted its creation in 1965 and consequent changes, for example, the entry and changes of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2012.

Medicare acts a universal health care insurance system by allowing all Australian citizens to have access to basic health needs inside of Australia. Medicare provides Australian with the opportunity of gaining access to the public hospital and free consultation at any bulk billing doctor. All though Medicare doesn't cover everything it covers the basic most important things. These include access to the public Medicare aims to promote the principles of social justice by making health care free for all Australians. This enables all people no matter what background to gain access to medical support even if they cannot pay for it. Health care ensures that all people receive basic treatment, not just the rich. This idea shows equity in Australian