Obama’s Attempt to Heal Medicare and the United States Healthcare System

September will be the most difficult month regarding healthcare reform for the Obama administration and the advocates of comprehensive health reform. They knew that it would be a tough month but knowing it and going through it is two different things. This administration and advocates are going through it.

Lawmakers are returning from a break and the President is returning from his vacation. Healthcare reform is not an easy task and has been a tough fight.
On top of everything else, Ted Kennedy – the Lion of the Senate – has now passed away.

Senator Kennedy had served for over 45 years and was a guiding light for lawmakers that were on both sides of the aisle. He was able to explain his point of view tactfully and respectfully so that even those who didn’t agree would still at least listen – and some of them actually heard him and adjusted their thinking on whatever subject was at hand. Of course, there were those times when he could be quite forceful and absolutely nobody missed the point.
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Now that lawmakers and the President are getting back to action, we will see what happens with these bills. One of the important issues when it comes to health insurance reform is the changes to Medicare.

We have been told that seniors and individuals with disabilities will not lose their benefits; however, there is a lot of spirited debate debating regarding their Medicare coverage.

One approach would be decrease the cost of reform as well as lessening its scope and spend around $600 billion to around $800 billion during the next ten years instead of over $1 trillion which has been proposed as a possibility. Doing this would make it easier on the finances of the federal government, but would be more difficult to actually put into place than doing a comprehensive overhaul of the whole system. Using the lesser figures would actually create a kind of hodge podge of a fix and would not fix two essential issues with the system we have now. There are two many people without health insurance and too many others are getting to the point where, not only can they not afford it, but it is not taking care of their needs at the prices they are paying now.
If there becomes a situation where reform cuts out subsidizing employers regarding health insurance, many people could not afford it anymore. They would be obligated to purchase insurance on their own. If they did not, there is a possibility that they would be fined.
Coverage could be offered to various groups depending on the situation, and hopefully, in time, other groups could be added. The hard part would be who would get this coverage. It is obvious that Medicaid is essential to individuals at or close to the poverty level. Having that program stay solid and be offered to all at that level would be an expensive proposition – around $40 billion in the next ten years. Yet going without it would cause extra problems – people at the poverty level who could not receive Medicaid could end up at the ER for things that could have cost the government hundred or thousands of dollars less had they been covered by Medicaid and allowed to simply see a doctor or a clinic. Essentially, if people in this position are not covered by Medicaid, they still get sick and the bills for those ER visits and other medical services for those who are not covered by Medicaid are partially absorbed by the hospitals as a loss and, you guessed it, paid by the government, thus affecting our taxes.

Medicare is another program that is essential to save.  As Boomers are becoming retirement age they will be ready to enroll in hordes, so they will need to be able to have this coverage. Most Boomers are a little more prepared for retirement than the last generation, so there may be a little breathing room as they transition, however, Medicare must be fixed and saved, and the President has promised not to cut this program, rather to save it and make it work.

The challenge now is for congress to find a way to make sure the uninsured are insured, find the money to pay for comprehensive healthcare reform and save these two programs – Medicare and Medicaid – while working to make all this affordable while moving into the future.

For now, we are all waiting to see what congress comes up with.

Filed under: General-Medicare

Tags: General-Medicare, healthcare, Healthcare Reform, medicaid, medicare reform