Running Head: WEEK 5 ISSUE PAPER
Week 5 issue paper
Week 5 issue paper
Medicare is a health insurance program that is established by the United States for person in the age group of 65 and older, there are however a certain section of people who are eligible for Medicare and are below the age 65 in addition to the disabled, persons with kidney failure or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (AHA, Medicare, 2011). It is most useful in the cost of health care; it however does not encompass all of the expenses or long term care expenses. The program includes; hospital insurance, payment for medical services, Medicare advantage and prescription drug coverage.
In the United States, the price of Medicare has changed with time, with the continued advancement in the medical world as well as technological advancement, health care is steadily becoming one of the most expensive things in America. One is affected with stress due to this expensive nature (Gratzer, 2006). Take an instance in 1992 where $738 billion was used on Medicare, and from this it has kept on increasing.
The number of persons who fall in the brackets of Medicare, more so part D that is the Medicare advantage and prescription drug coverage, are people who are lowly paid an are no longer able to pay for their Medicare coverage for prescription and are hence placed at risk (Gpoaccess, 2007). They more often lack the resources to handle these problems.
There is another problem of trying to maintain the payment rates for the physicians, with high numbers of old aged patients who require attention, there has been a growing problem of how to handle this issue (AHA, More What’s New, 2011). The decision to make drastic layoffs of the workers is not of consideration as this will further burden the ones available. Presently the hospitals are already seeing negative Medicare margins that could affect the individuals under the program. Adding his voice to the matter, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) stated that the idea of offsetting the physician payment reform
“It is not something that should be collected from the very people you’re trying to keep in business to treat Medicare patients.”
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is quite aware of the financial situation being experienced; it stated it would have to support the social security if it felt the program never supported the requirements of the people (Henderson, 2008). AHA consequently held a meeting to address the Medicare issue and stated that the government was willing to support the funding for health insurance so long as it was being issued by nonprofit making organizations like Blue Cross (Maioni, 1998). It added that the tax resource was of les consideration hence leaving the leeway for Social Security tax financing.
The American Hospital Association has applauded the legislation put in place by California which was passed by the United States House of Representatives (Henderson, 2008). The AHA has sorted other methods to handle this issue that would help to enhance and establish a legal environment that forestalls a high-quality patient care; this is known as the “Framework for Medical Liability Reform” (US healthcare reform bills inspire fear and hope in cardiologists, 2010). This framework aims to create an administrative compensation system that is tasked with compensating patients with injuries hence avoiding medical care (McGeary, 2011). This would be effective with the use of an evidence-based clinical guidelines and schedules for compensation price.
With its use it is expected that the quality and patient benefits would be high, there would be similarly be a broader access as well as a reasonable compensation scheme and an efficient system that would address the problems at hand.
Bibliography
US healthcare reform bills inspire fear and hope in cardiologists. (2010, January 15). The Health.
AHA. (2011). Medicare. Retrieved August 1, 2011, from American Hospital Association: http://www.aha.org/aha_app/issues/Medicare/index.jsp
AHA. (2011). More What’s New. American Hospital Association.
Gpoaccess. (2007). Medicare Part D: is it working for low-income seniors? : Hearing. Washington: DIANE Publishing.
Gratzer, D. (2006). The cure: how capitalism can save American health care. New York, USA: Encounter Books.
Henderson, J. W. (2008). Health economics & policy. Mason, USA: Cengage Learning.
Maioni, A. (1998). Parting at the crossroads: the emergence of health insurance in the United States and Canada. New Jersey, United Kingdom: Princeton University Press Business and Economics.
McGeary, M. G. (2011). Medicare Condition of Participation and Accreditation from Hospitals. The National Academic Press.
