Memo

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) had mame dramatic changes in the field of the health care system, especially in Medicare, that will seriously take effect in American seniors. Indeed, much of the health law’s new spending is financed by spending reductions in the Medicare program. In addition to the provider payment reductions, Obamacare significantly reduces payments to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans by an estimated $156 billion from 2013 to 2022.( Elmendorf, letter to Speaker Boehner). About 27 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in MA plans, a system of regulated and private plans competing against each other as an alternative to traditional Medicare. MA plans are attractive to beneficiaries because they offer more generous and comprehensive coverage than traditional Medicare by capping out-of-pocket costs and offering drug coverage to a rasonable

Republicans and economist want to privatize Medicare turning it into a voucher-like program that subsidizes purchases of private health insurance. House Republicans have proposed this bill in order to fulfill the GOP goal of balancing the budget in 10 years. Having said that, I can only hypothesize that the amount of capital available to the “new” Medicare population will dwindle and the needs of elderly patients may not be met.

The purpose of this paper is to thoroughly examine the similarities and differences of Medicare and Medicaid managed care plans by comparing and contrasting its strengths, weaknesses, incentives, commitment to access, and risks to the consumer. Medicaid and Medicare are both health insurance programs financed and administered by government entities and are both equivalent in terms of the number of beneficiaries and total expenditures (McCarthy, Schafermeyer, & Plake, 2011). These healthcare programs differ in terms of how they are funded and governed and who they cover. Medicare is an important source of coverage for 65 or older adults, for people under 65 with disabilities, and for people of all ages with End-Stage Renal Disease in the United States. It provides health insurance protection and enables access to medical care for 54 million beneficiaries.

Medicare is absolutely is a state of crisis and if we do not make the necessary modifications to this medical entitlement, there will not be a Medicare

The Health Affairs published an article in about a proposed Medicare reform regarding the high levels of use of Medicare although there was little impact on individuals. Though this article dates back to 2002, the issue still remains true to this day. In this article, the authors explain that the high level of Medicare spending was mostly due to the increase number of physician visits, specialist consultations, and hospital stays, especially among those that had chronic illnesses. Although the spending is higher among such Medicare patients, this did not mean better effective care or health care outcomes. On the contrary, according to the article, more than 20% of the total

To further explain, Hamel et al. (2015) referred to the Medicare options – Medicare Part A, B, D, Medigap – with the different copay, premiums, and policy which contribute to the fragmented care in the program. Consequently, Hamel et al. (2015) stressed that the complexities and variation in health care delivery might result in poor outcomes and health access limitation to older adults. Hence, Hamel et al. (2015) included the proposals to integrate all the Medical options into a single program with a specific premium, deductible, and policy. Moreover, Hamel et al. (2015) offered to lower the out of pocket cost for beneficiaries to eliminate the Medigap. In this way, Hamel et al. (2015) reasoned that the process of coordinating care, measuring quality, and payment reimbursement will be more

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 most vital components were recipient opportunity of selection of suppliers, cost-based repayment of institutional suppliers, and expense for-benefit repayments in light of sensible charges for doctors' administrations. Except for long haul mind administrations, there were couples of constraints set on the utilization of secured administrations. There were no impetuses for doctor's facilities to control costs and no prizes for enhancing productivity. The repayment arrangements are at present experiencing real changes. In 1982, changes were made in the law to fortify the enlistment of Medicare beneficiaries into prepaid gathering rehearses; in 1983 the cost-based repayment framework for doctor's facilities was supplanted with a planned installment framework under which doctor's facilities are paid a settled sum for dealing with patients in view of their release determination. In 1985 the Reagan organization proposed supplanting the present doctor repayment framework with a charge plan. The national government is likewise assessing routes for bringing different suppliers of care under forthcoming installment. In the vicinity of 1977 and 1984, installments for administrations under Medicare expanded at a yearly rate of 17.3 percent for each year. By 1984 Medicare uses for the elderly added up to $58.5 billion, making it the third biggest

Medicare medical coverage arrangements will help senior natives to cover the vast majority of their medicinal services costs. Individuals who are over the age of 65 or those with some interminable issue are qualified for Medicare arranges. These are grouped into Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D. Section A - or doctor's facility scope pays for inpatient clinic administrations, home human services, hospice care and nursing care after healing facility remain. Medicare Part B covers restorative costs, outpatient doctor's facility treatment and clinical research center administrations. Section An and Part B are the first Medicare arranges. A great deal of fundamental medicinal services expenses are secured by Part An and Part B. Be that as it may, these arrangements are won't cover co-installments and deductibles. Medicare Part D covers brand name and non specific physician

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

I appreciate this information on improvements to Medicare. It is encouraging to hear the efforts in quality improvement through the ACA provisions – better care coordination, payment incentives for performance and quality outcomes, and increased patient satisfaction through the transparency measures. On the part of Medicare beneficiaries, I agree with the program reform of combining the Medicare Part A and B benefit plan. Trivedi (2017) declared that 17% of the health care costs are out of pocket costs for the consumers. Additionally, Trivedi (2017) affirmed that charges for copays tend to be higher than the insurers’ cost, allotting expensive medical bills to clients. As for Medicare patients, while the Part A is available to eligible

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.

Medicare, a federally supported program, was adopted in 1965 to provide health coverage and services to the elderly seniors (over 65) and disabled citizens without regard to income or medical history. Its funds come directly from federal governments and beneficiaries. Medicare revenues come from interest, taxation of social security benefits, state payments, payroll taxes, beneficiary premiums and general revenue. The government uses money generated from taxes to reimburse providers who take care of patients enrolled in these programs.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) was established in 1967 in efforts to increase health coverage. For that matter, Medicare was purposely established to increase health coverage and as well as allow the less fortunate/vulnerable individuals in the society access quality and affordable healthcare (CMS, 2015). Today, Medicare and Medicaid collectively cover about one hundred million Americans. Among the largest group covered by Medicare are the elderly persons. At the old age, the vulnerability to various illness increase. Despite an increasing elderly population in the country, the majority of them cannot afford to pay out of pocket for health care services or pay for a private health insurance. As a result, Medicare aims at providing different coverage plans that are also affordable (CMS, 2015). For that matter, this paper will focus on the various coverage plans offered by Medicare and the ease with which elderly persons can make decisions regarding the coverage plans.