A Comparison Of England And The United States : Healthcare Delivery For Older Adults Essay

In the contemporary world, America is one of the greatest countries. From the polio vaccine to Coca Cola, United States is mother to many inventions. As Americans, we enjoy higher quality living standards than most other parts of the world. This pleasure-oriented lifestyle makes a lot of other nations envious of us. And with the envy comes antipathy. For the time it has existed, the American healthcare system has been a subject of scrutiny and debate.

The following paper is based on the differences between two healthcare systems in two different countries, these systems are the Australian healthcare system which is Medicare, and England’s National health system which is known as the NHS.

The baby-boomer generation is aging and adding more beneficiaries’ at an increasing rate than ever before and is estimated to impact the federal deficit by over 17% by 2020. Many other countries have National Healthcare that provides better care at a much lower cost. Medicare was the motivation for a universal healthcare plan and a program for the U.S. could have a positive impact. (Starr, 2011).

Many proposals to reorganize Medicare could increase the financial and health risks faced by the vulnerable elderly. Turning Medicare into a premium-support system a voucher set randomly at the value of the second-least-expensive insurance plan could shift costs to elderly households. Increasing the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 will leave many Americans ages 65 and 66 without insurance. The basic idea of part A Medicare payment is simple. The patient pays a deductible that approximately equal to the cost of the first day in the hospital;

I was intrigued by the amount of pill bottles that one patient had in his kitchen cupboard which made me reflect on the cost of health care produced by the older adult. I began to research the cost of living longer and found that as of 2011, 24 percent of the Medicare population were over the age of 80. I also found that Medicare spending for those above the age of 85 averages around $14,745 (Neuman, Cubanski, Huaung, & Damico, 2015). So I ended up learning that the older

Experience working in the field of health care lends insight to the growing needs of the older adult population, and the barriers which impede our capacity to meet them. As the Baby Boomer age is approaching older adulthood, the rise for financial,

Suitable health care would not be possible for the elderly population in America without the assistance of Medicare Part A. Medicare did not come about easily. Currently Medicare spending is more than what is being collected, questioning future solvency. There are many challenges with sustaining Medicare into the future. Medicare’s past struggles, present outcomes, and future challenges confirm that a national health plan is ever evolving to meet the needs of the current population and spending inflation.

Medicare is a health insurance program purposely created for people over sixty five (65) years of age. However the service is open to people with certain disabilities or permanent kidney failures. The process of choosing the right Medicare involves having to weigh different plans on account of benefits of their cover. Different types of Medicare plans are important in: Inpatient hospital care, outpatient services, doctor visits, home health care, prescription drugs, and care in a skilled nursing facility among others. In addition, the program covers the cost of health care but does not cover all medical expenses including cost of long term care. If one ought to choose an original Medicare coverage, one may buy a Medicare supplement policy from a private insurance company to aid in coverage of costs that are not supported by Medicare. Most of these Medicare expenses are covered by a part of the pay role offered to workers by their employer. This paper covers different Medicare plans; A, B, C, D and their influence towards my decision on the best preferred option.

census discloses that the county age group is rapidly increasing and the trend will continue grow from a 99,086 to 140,000 by the year 2030 (Maryland Department of Aging, 2014). Research has shown that social inequalities are inter-reliant in the society and the impacts on health are present in all ages, however, it is predominant with the seniors leaving in the community. As it indicates, to reduce these disparities, it requires multi-interventional and collaborative approaches in addressing the various factors of health, it services and it cost. Although the United States has had some effective policies and few good health programs, however, providing a stable and adequate income for most of the seniors and providing a good public health care system goes a long way in improving their health and also increasing life expectancy. Much can and should be done to reduce inequalities that exist among the seniors and public health should take led in addressing the various aspect that affects the seniors. This paper has discussed the barriers to healthcare among the seniors and it has provided innumerable recommendations that would help improve their

This paper outlines the differences between the healthcare systems of the United States and the United Kingdom and expands on what that means for the health and wealth of the citizens of these countries. The U.S. and the U.K. are two different countries with two very different healthcare systems. The U.S. healthcare system is the Affordable Care Act, (ACA) and is the attempt by the U.S. to provide affordable healthcare coverage. he U.K. healthcare system is publicly financed and managed by the National Health Service, (NHS). The U.S. healthcare system is largely private sector whereas the healthcare in the U.K. is public. “The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country in the nation while the U.K. is a country that spends

Yet of perhaps greatest importance to the American healthcare system and industry is the demographical information of this older population in terms of its particular characteristics and disposition. More specifically, healthcare professionals and policy analysts must understand the aging populations’ economic and living situations, and their overall health status (Jacobsen, Kent, Lee & Mather, 2011). Economic factors are key as they directly pertain to the likelihood of reliance on publically-funded healthcare programs, while “the marital status and living arrangements of the elderly are closely tied to levels of social support, economic well-being, and the availability of caregivers” (Jacobsen et al., 2011, p. 4). The importance of this population’s general health status is, of course, self-explanatory.

Due to the upcoming presidential election, the two major political parties, and their candidates, have been focusing on the primary problems that the nation will face. Chief among those problems is the future of Medicare, the national health-insurance plan. Medicare was enacted in 1965, under the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, in order to provide health insurance for retired citizens and the disabled (Ryan). The Medicare program covers most people aged 65 or older, as well as handicapped people who enroll in the program, and consists of two health plans: a hospital insurance plan (part A) and a medical insurance plan (part B) (Marmor 22). Before Medicare, many Americans didn't have health

The growing concern regarding the financial security of Medicare is one of particular interest to the nearly 72 million baby boomers that become eligible for this government-assisted, and tax-payer bolstered, program over the next two decades. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2010), there will be a rapid increase in baby-boomers between 2010 and 2030, as the entire baby boomer population move into the 65 years and over category (p.3). Political and financial revisions must be made to ensure the security of Medicare as the numbers of individuals paying into this program are soon to be surpassed by the number of individuals drawing-off this program (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The elderly are also at a disadvantage with transportation to health care visits, picking up prescriptions, and rehabilitation services. There needs to be an establishment of access not only to primary care providers, hospitals, and rehabilitation services, but access to other aspects of the health care system for the elderly population.

Department of Health (DH) (2001). National Service Framework for Older People. London: Department of Health.

After four decades of failure to enact a universal healthcare program, advocates decided to refine their approach in the 1950s, and the strategy that ultimately led to the passage of Medicare and Medicaid was formulated. Wilbur Cohen and I.S. Falk recognized that a health insurance plan focused on Social Security beneficiaries would be much easier to sell than a plan for all Americans. By limiting its benefits to the elderly, Medicare could be portrayed as a program for people who met two important criteria: they had greater need for healthcare coverage and they were especially deserving of public assistance. Because of their age, seniors have relatively high medical costs--when Medicare was passed, average healthcare expenses for people sixty-five or older were twice the average expenses for younger persons. (Orentlicher, D. (2012).