medicare

The Future of Medicare

The United States may indeed provide the best health care in the world but it also well-known that despite of how great health care technology is , many US citizens cannot avail of medical services when they need it This is because the price of health care in the US is far to steep for the average citizen to pay for . Many US citizens also do not have medical insurance which should be provided by government health insurance agencies such as Medicare . Medicare does provide health insurance but it

does not cover much of the people 's health needs Medicare is also facing a bleak future when speaking of its financial condition and the only way to save Medicare from insolvency is to reform the entire health care system

In 2003 , 18 percent of non-elderly Americans do not have insurance while 62 percent availed of private insurance sponsored by their employers . Only 15 percent have insurance under government-funded insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid (Chua , 2006

Medicare is a federal public health insurance program . It is a single-payer program under the government and is funded by federal income taxes and payroll tax paid by both employer and employees and individual premiums . Even as a US citizens avails of Medicare insurance many of them still obtain other insurance as supplements to the gaps of Medicare . Medicare does not completely cover skilled nursing facilities preventive health care , as well as dental , hearing and vision care (Chua , 2006

According to Richard W . Fisher , Medicare is facing a financial predicament . Medicare consists of Part A covering hospital stays , Part B covering doctor visits , and Part D covering drug benefits . Fisher explained that Medicare A has an unfunded liability of 34 .4 trillion while Medicare B has 34 trillion . Additionally , Medicare D accounts for another unfunded liability of 17 .2 trillion . The amount trillion which is higher than the than six times of the US economic output . This figure yet only composes of the unfunded portion of Medicare . To include the unfunded portion is the Medicare . Fisher indicated that Medicare expenses are so high because of birth rate and life expectancy issues . Advancements in medical technology cost a fortune and Medicare expresses the willingness to pay for these high-priced medical bills . Additionally , Medicare expanded its stream of benefits which resulted in more expenses (Fisher , 2008 From the bar graph above , one can clearly identify how much Medicare spending per person is . From 1997 up to the present , a consistent increase on per capita cost is very noticeable . From around an 8 ,000 per capita spending on 2005 , per capita spending suddenly jumped to more than 10 ,000 on 2006 . The graph also present expected trends on Medicare per capita costs and it is expected that it would rise at consistent pace

Since medical care is so highly-priced , Medicare is not in a very good financial condition . According to a report by the Medicare and Social Security board of trustees , the Medicare...