Medicare 's Financial Problems Affecting The Entire Budget

The Medicare program is being perceived that it will go bankrupt in about 10 years unless there is major reform. There are six recommendations that should be reformed for the protection of the program for future generations. The program must protect retirees from an economic healthcare disaster. The cost of the program must be shared and this will motivate benefactors to reduce cost by adding accountability to the program. Reducing Medicare expenditures will have a much larger impact than increasing taxes. Calculating the retirement age in correlation to life

As this baby-boomer generation continues to age there will be profound effects on the way that money is spent on health care and insurance. With approximately 77 million people turning 65 over the next several years, the amount of government spending on Medicare will greatly increase (Gigante, 2012). Thus, the demand for medical care associated with the aging population will so

Medicare has given the elderly population and people with disabilities access to health care coverage. It traditionally protects recipients and their families against health related expenses that could otherwise drastically hurt their finances. In FY 2009, the state of Mississippi spent over $5.2 billion in benefits for its recipients, which accounted for 26.9% percent of the overall health care spending for the entire state.

Continued increases in healthcare spending can negatively impact all sectors of the economy (Sood, Ghosh, and Escarse 2007). Budgets are currently limited, so an increase in healthcare funding could mean a reduction in funding to other areas such as education, and businesses, or may cause the government to increase restrictions or raise taxes (Sood, Ghosh,

As the newly appointed chief of staff I have been tasked with responding to a proposal for reducing Medicare expenditures by enrolling participants in HMO. I understand that we have some key questions must be addressed and that we must justify our position on either economic efficiency or equity grounds. Outlined below are some of the questions that must be answered in order address this issue properly.

Fifty years ago, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare program into law. “It has been a reliable guarantor of the health and welfare of older and disabled Americans by paying their medical bills, ensuring their access to needed health care services, and protecting them from potentially crushing health expenses.” (Hamel, Blumenthal, Davis, & Guterman, 2015, p. 479). With the encouragement of George W. Bush, congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). The MMA extended Medicare to include prescription-drug coverage, known as Medicare Part D. In 2013, Medicare covered the health care expenses for 52.3 million Americans, costing $583 billon. Originally, Medicare had difficulty controlling costs; physicians and hospitals were

The Medicare trust fund is a government insurance program that finances medical care for three different groups of individuals: people that are 65 years of age or older, disabled individuals who can receive Social Security benefits, and people who have end-stage renal disease (Shi & Singh, 2015). Individuals in these three categories can enroll regardless of their annual income. In 2015 there were 55.3 million beneficiaries and the expenditures for the year totaled $648 billion ("Trustees report," 2016). Medicare is funded by payroll taxes, general tax revenues, and premiums that are paid by individuals enrolled in the plan.

Medicare and Medicaid has been providing huge benefits for senior citizens and low income families. The one question nobody seems to answer is how are we going to afford this type of insurance? Maya Rockeymoore argues in her article, “Groundless Fears about Medicaid and Medicare,” that we are able to afford this as long as we make good decisions. Rockeymoore claims that we need to keep Medicare and Medicaid or our country will fall apart.

Major Findings by Payer Medicare due to a deceleration in growth across most service types in 2012, Medicare spending growth is estimated to have slowed to 4.6 percent, down from 6.2 percent growth in 2011, for a total of $580.0 billion. Projected Medicare spending growth of 4.2 percent in 2013 reflects the 2-percent reduction in Medicare payments mandated in the Budget Control Act of 2011, also referred to as sequestration. For 2015 through 2022, projected Medicare spending growth of 7.4 percent reflects the net effect of faster growth in enrollment and utilization, increased severity of illness and treatment intensity, and faster growth in input prices, partially offset by ACA-mandated adjustments to payments for certain providers, lower payments to private plans, and reducing scheduled spending when spending exceeds formula-driven targets. Medicaid Medicaid spending is estimated to have grown 2.2 percent to $416.8 billion in 2012, similar to the 2.5 percent growth in

Although there are increases in health spending, most of them are not all that bad. Economists believe that it makes countries become wealthier and others say that all additional expenditures can be good investments. Another positive outlook on health care expenditures is that it can be a hassle from some but for others it is a means of income as well. The other factors that also contribute to health care costs are increased labor, resistance of consumers to managed care restrictions, the upcoming aging population as well. Regardless of the health care spending increases, there are ways to this situation. We can start with the government and how they can get rid of any programs that are not really needed and taking away time and money that can be used elsewhere.

Healthcare spending growth rate trends show astounding estimates. Since 1960, spending has risen from $27 billion ($143 per capita, 5.1% pf GDP) to amazing $1,678.9 billion ($5,670 per capita, 15.3% of GDP, 2003 data) (HHS, 2005). Recent research estimated that by 2013, healthcare spending will be as high as 18.4% of the Growth Domestic Product. It is important to note that the gradual move from hospital to ambulatory setting has resulted in much higher spending on outpatient hospital services and prescription drugs. The spending growth for these two trends is much higher than the overall healthcare cost growth, which, in fact, increases faster than such important economic indicators as GDP growth, inflation growth, and population growth rates.

According the Department of Health and Human Services, total health care spending in the U.S. reached $2.3 trillion in 2008, or $7,681 per person. As a share of GDP, healthcare expenditures set a new record of 16.2 percent. That’s double the 8.1 percent share of GDP in 1975, and it is triple the 5.2 percent share of GDP in 1960. (Perry, 2010) Last year in 2012, total U.S. health care spending hit $2.807 trillion, or $8,948 per person. (Geisel, 2013) Its rate of increase has been relatively low since 2009, at

In addition, I have learned about the importance of Medicare and Medicare in the health care system. Medicaid and Medicare both are two governmental programs that provide medical and health services to particular groups of people in the United States. The two programs are distinctly different, but they are both managed by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid services, which is are the division of U.S Department of Health Services. Relatively, both are providing services to millions of people have low-income or those that are facing poverty. Moreover, the programs supports people with medical care, certain disabilities and people of all ages certain condition failure. However, some services are not supported by through Medicare or Medicaid

Medicare is facing a fiscal crisis that threatens its sustainability. The need for significant Medicare reform is increasingly urgent as 76 million baby boomers are expected to retire over the next two decade. According to the 201 Medicare Trustees Report, the Hospital Insurance trust fund will be depleted in 2024. This translates to $27 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years. Current projections indicate that health care costs will increase by more that 70 percent over the next ten years and will continue thereafter to consume an increasingly greater portion of personal income.

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.