Evolution of Medicare Essay

Abstract The article briefly describes about the Medicare and its benefits. The article also explains the loopholes in the Medicare policy and why it lacks certain vital aspects. Finally in the concluding remarks I have explained the gray areas where the Medicare needs some rectification and improvement to help serve its purpose. Evolution of Medicare According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare is stated as a health insurance program for people aged 65 years and above or people with disabilities but under 65 years of age and/or people suffering from end-stage renal disease such as permanent kidney failure. Diane Rowland stated that Medicaid originated based on companion legislation enacted in 1965 providing â€Å"federal matching grants to states to finance care.† According to Tricia Neuman, Medicare covers about 41 million people with 35 million elderly and 6 million disabled below 65 years of age. Medicare can be classified into following parts: Part A – Inpatient hospital care and limited skilled nursing care Part B – Physician services and other outpatient hospital services Part C – HMO’s and other private care (Combination of Part A and Part B) Part D – Outpatient prescription drug coverage.   The US Department of Health and Human Services stated that an individual is eligible for Medicare if S/he or spouse has been employed for a minimum of â€Å"10 years in a Medicare covered government employment† and is 65 years or above and a permanent resident cum citizen of the US. An individual below 65 years of age but suffering from a disability or end-stage renal disease would also qualify to avail of Medicare services. According to the National Medicare Commission some of the important points to be noted are as follows: Without reform Part A of trust fund is bound to become bankrupt in the year 2008. Medicare beneficiaries are already paying 30% of their health care costs from their pockets for items such as premiums, services and products not covered under Medicare. The Annual Medicare expenditure is expected to rise in the range of $2.2 trillion to $3 trillion by 2030. Consequently the Medicare spending would occupy a â€Å"larger part of the federal budget† and funding for other important programs like national defense, justice, health and safety and environmental protection will potentially get affected. According to Holly Sklar, besides being costly the US ranks 29th in World Health Organization healthy life expectancy rankings and sad to note that US is behind 36 other countries in child mortality of age less than five years. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the United States topped with a 15% spending of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health in 2003 in comparison to an average of 8.6% spending in 30 other OECD countries. Despite the fact that US tops among the OECD countries in spending from its GDP, some of the startling facts are that it has lesser number of physicians, nurses and hospital beds per person and fewer MRI and CT scanners than an average OECD nation. â€Å"Lack of health insurance is killing many more Americans than terrorism.† After a brief discussion about Medicare, it is clear that reforms need to take place on an immediate basis to avoid bankruptcy of Part A of trust fund and the steps seem to be moving in a right direction with regard to charging higher premiums to those with higher incomes, thus bringing in equality in treatments. A flaw rectified recently was in respect of outpatient drug benefit, but there needs to be some more improvement so as to provide long term care and also provide hearing aids, eyeglasses and dental care. References Medicare Eligibility Tool. The US Department of Health and Human Services. Page retrieved from: http://www.medicare.gov/MedicareEligibility/home.asp?dest=NAV%7CHome%7CGeneralEnrollment&version=default&browser=IE%7C7%7CWinXP&language=English Diane Rowland. Medicaid: The Basics (2005). Kaiser Commission on Medicaid. Powerpoint presentation available on: http://www.kaiseredu.org/tutorials/medicaidbasics/medicaid.html Tricia Neuman. Medicare 101 (2005). The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Powerpoint presentation available on: http://www.kaiseredu.org/tutorials/Medicare%20101/Medicare101.html National Medicare Commission. The Facts About Medicare. National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. Page retrieved from: http://medicare.commission.gov/medicare/factpage4.html Holly Sklar. Time for Health Care for All on Medicare’s 40th Anniversary (2005). Politics of Health. page retrieved from: http://politicsofhealth.org/main/time_for_health_care_for_all_on_medicare_s_40th_anniversary