Rolunda Baker
Medicare Crisis
Medicare is another project of Lyndon Baines Johnson Great Society. Spending is obviously out of control. On June 5th the government announced that the Medicare Trust Fund would go broke if something isn’t done with the spending (nationaldebt). In 1965 when LBJ started Health and Medicare, the Total Federal Spending for the year was $101 Billion. By the year 2000 we will spend over 4 times than amount on Health and Medicare alone, and Medicare will equal the annual spending for Defense (CNN). Medicare was a program that was not acceptable gracefully by the Liberal/Socialists. You might keep this in mind when we get to the point where we have to choose what we CAN do versus what we would LIKE to do. According to CMS the government predict that if healthcare keeps going the in the current direction the cost of Medicare will have exceeded defense spending, unlike other Healthcare systems the US healthcare has been a problem for the government as well for it has added to the enormous debt the country already has.
Another major problem of Medicare is that the government does not regulate Medicare enough (Medicare). Medicare affects all different aspects of different programs. For instance Medicare affects Social Security (national debt). Social Security has already exceeded Defense spending by almost double. Just like Medicare, Social Security is being abused. So many people abuse the system, by that i mean people take advantage of it. It is different from Medicare because less people can use Social Security because it is set aside for the tax payers of this country.
The good news is that Social Security is not endangering of losing money or even going bankrupt. The federal healthcare program for the elderly is a system of checks and balances where change is expected. The fact that we have something within the next year or so to ensure that nothing goes bad in the year 2001 or 2002 is expected (CNN1). But the government is not going to do that by slashing benefits.
Since the baby boomers are getting older and more and more people are choosing to live healthier lives. The cost of coverage has to meet the demands of the increasing elderly population as well as newly disabled people. Health care is continuously skyrocketing each year, yet the amount of money that Medicare can offer doesn’t match the increase in health care costs (Cain). The Medicare program needs to be reformed, but this can only happen after the government analyzes the factors that contribute to the present state of Medicare. Medicare won't just affect seniors; people younger than 65 will be affected too. The likely changes might reduce costs. They could also mean you are less likely to get your coverage through your employer—or that the coverage you do get will be less generous.
How to fix Medicare is the greatest challenge. This issue is a very important one that will eventually come under fire as we approach that year 2001(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. (2002, September 5). When Medicare is projected to go bankrupt. This issue might not be resolved and we could be seeing the end of Medicare. If Medicare fails there will be others behind Medicare like Medicaid, MediCal, Social Security to help out but losing Medicare will be a major blow to society and U.S. may not recover from this one for a very long time. Medicare and Medicaid and various governmental or public health insurances are under scrutiny and revision with plans for mirroring the Japanese model of paying a physician; paying physicians and hospitals based on keeping patients well.
Some solutions to consider in trying to fix the Medicare spending crisis is Tax on working couples, Privatization, and Voluntary or Mandatory Enrollment. Each option is something the government can consider and weight the odds of each option and its benefits. Because the government can’t cut out of the Medicare program in its entirety because of all the people that would be affected.
The first is the Tax on working couples; this could mean that payroll taxes could be altered so that single income couples make a contribution that is comparable to the taxes paid by a working couple. The other way is to have working spouses be exempted from tax liability or eligible for an offset tax credit. But this is may result in burden for single workers since they would effectively be subsidizing married couples. The government could also phase out and abolish spousal benefits for future beneficiaries.
Secondly Privatization generally leads to reduced costs, higher-quality services, and increased innovation in formerly moribund government industries. Such reforms would reduce federal budget deficits and help spur economic growth. Private plans should be paid at the same rate that the traditional Medicare program is paid for covering beneficiaries. However, due to provisions of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), private Medicare Advantage
Plans are now paid an average of 14 percent more than traditional Medicare. All Medicare beneficiaries, not just the 20 percent of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in private plans. Equalizing Medicare payments would save about $169 billion over ten years, reduce Medicare Part B premiums by $3.00 a month per beneficiary and bring an additional 18 months of solvency to the Medicare hospital trust fund.

The third, Voluntary or mandatory enrollment is the issue of the beneficiary financing of Medicare through the mandatory payroll tax also opens the question of voluntary enrollment and premium payments. Voluntary enrollees essentially pay for the value of the insurance received, whereas there is no connection for mandatory beneficiaries. The best way is to probably charge all individuals the payroll tax and the proposal to extend the HI tax to government workers forwards this idea and minimizes the number of people enrolling voluntarily.

Conclusion
The bottom line is that we the people need the Medicare program and if the government does not intervene and offer some resolution to save the Medicare program and find long term budget to fund the program than some many American people will be without healthcare coverage. Medicare is not only for the elderly but for people under 65 as well. If Medicare is done away with then this would leave room for employers to lower premiums for employees and no longer offer incentives for employees.
The government has come up a plan that will for restructuring the Medicare plan and they need to do it sooner rather than later, in order for future generation to have some type of healthcare coverage at an afford rate per individual or married couple. There are several options for the government to consider and they must weight all the advantages and disadvantages of each option and then at some point implement one or a combination of programs that the Medicare program can continue and possible even be better by offering more services than before. If push comes to a shove there is always the Medicare HMO plans that are currently on the market that individual who qualify for Medicare can be available.

References

Retrieved September 11, 2002, from http://cms.hhs.gov/ regulations/hopps/
Medicare program [Electronic version]. Monterey County: The Herald. Retrieved September 12, 2002 http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/mcherald/news/nation/4057683.htm
Medicare Payment Systems (2011, October 07). Retrieved November 05, 2011, from http://www.medicare.gov/ www.medicare.gov/caregivers/partners-current.html https://www.cms.gov/History/ http://nationaldebt.us/