A Research Essay on Effects of Medicare and Medicaid

Published under category: Custom Writing | 2015-02-18 16:28:02 UTC

Context: US healthcare system

Order an essay on Medicare and Medicaid. This is the best custom writing website for Medicare assignments. If you want reliable writer to do your essay of Medicare, you at the right place. The following is an essay sample on Medicaid and Medicare. Buy essays on Medicare from this custom assignment writing website. Medicare is a national social insurance program in the United States. It is administered by the federal government. It provides health insurance for citizens aged 65 years and above. These citizens must have initially worked, and paid into trust funds. Moreover, Medicare covers dialysis patients, or those with an end-stage renal disease. This program was established in 1966. Medicaid, on the other hand, is a social health program for both families and individuals, who are low income earners in the United States. It covers citizens of all ages, whose salaries are not enough to cater for healthcare. Those eligible must be U.S. citizens, who are of low income, and also the disabled. Medicare has several advantages. For starters, an individual who has subscribed for Medicare can still use his or her own private insurance plan for routine check. Therefore, one is not absolutely tied to the Medicare program only. However, every member is assigned a Primary Care Physician, who one must consult, to enjoy the full benefits. Better still, if one needs special attention, Medicare, who is usually proposed by the Primary Care Physician, assigns a specialist. In addition, the monthly payments are highly subsidized, or in some cases, there are no monthly payments. Moreover, medication is included in the kitty. However, one has to chip in a little to cover for part of the medication cost. Medicare advantages are similar in the whole country. This is not the case for Medicaid. Medicaid’s policies change according to the different states. Nonetheless, there are strengths of Medicaid, which are common across the board. Medicaid tends to give a lot of specialized attention to expectant mothers. It offers nurse midwife services, family planning services, and counseling for tobacco cessation, for pregnant mothers. For the rest of its subscribers, it offers: home health services, physician services, in-patient and outpatient service, laboratory and X-ray services, just to mention but a few. Therefore, in terms of services offered, none of these two programs seems to get the better of the other. On the flipside, Medicare has one major weakness. Since its initiation, the number of citizens aged 65 years and above has continued to increase gradually. This therefore, creates the fear that this number might increase to a point where the working population, which is the main funder of the program, might not be able to sustain it. The government will consequently, be unable to bear the cost of Medicare. Medicaid also has its fair share of weaknesses. It is not available to everyone. In some instances, one’s income may be termed as too high for them to access the plan. Moreover, most of the benefits it offers are not readily available. For example, the choices for nursing home facilities are very limited. The types of long-term care programs are also highly limited and restricted. Moreover, Medicaid is considered a very expensive program, since one has to spend almost their entire income on care. Furthermore, unlike Medicare, acceptability to the Medicaid program is not guaranteed. Medicare and Medicaid also differ in their incentive programs. While the Medicare incentive program is run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicaid is run by the State Medicaid Agency of each respective state. Moreover, the maximum incentive amount for Medicare is $44,000, whereas that for Medicaid is $63,750. Regarding payments, Medicare has a 5 year consecutive payment plan, while on the other hand, Medicaid has a 6 year payment plan whereby, the six years do not have to be consecutive. In both programs, providers need to demonstrate meaningful use every year, so as to receive incentive payments. As regards access to both programs, the United States government has continued to ensure that they remain accessible to the general public. As a requirement, all provider companies need to ensure that all their Electronic and Information Technology is easily accessible to persons with disabilities. Moreover, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services have been established throughout the country to ensure easy access to these services by the general public. In addition, those patients who are highly vulnerable are given first priority in the two programs. Therefore, no one who is in great need of healthcare is locked out of the system. Considering the unpredictability of both programs, consumers are put at a risk. With the rising cost of healthcare, the numbers of those eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid continue to decrease. Moreover, more stringent rules and requirements continue to be enforced. This puts many citizens at a risk of missing an opportunity to utilize these resources. Furthermore, also pegged on the rising cost of healthcare, consumer contribution to Medicare and Medicaid may be increased, to cater for more benefits. There is a fear that it will reach a point where these programs will not be affordable to the low income earners, and the old. However, no single program is foolproof. We have to embrace the risks, as much as we embrace the benefits. There still remains a lot of room for improvement, for these two programs. To begin with, these two programs need a bigger budget allocation. With increased funding, Medicare and Medicaid will be able to be more efficient, and will therefore be able to support more needy citizens. Moreover, removal of privatization of Medicare will lead to increased and better Medicare services. The privatization of Medicare brought about a lot of unnecessary complexity and costs, as a result of competition between health insurance companies. This could be made better if Medicare’s privatization were to be revoked. Medicare also does not cover for all services. Even for the services that are catered for, one still needs to pay deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments. At the end of the day, this makes Medicare expensive. The Medicare plan needs to be revised, to ensure that basic outpatient services are absolutely free. There also needs to be improved benefits for chronic care. This is considering the fact that the elderly are more prone to chronic illnesses. As for Medicaid, it needs to improve its chronic care management. Chronic care management should be made more affordable to those with chronic illnesses. This way, the program will be more beneficial to more people. The program should also introduce, and support home and community based services. Providing care in home settings will be much cheaper than nursing homes. Moreover, Medicaid needs to come up with customized beneficiary services. Patients’ needs are not equal. Therefore, Medicaid should be flexible enough to abandon the one size fits all mentality. Anyway, that notwithstanding, we cannot ignore the fact that Medicare and Medicaid have revolutionized healthcare in the United States. Giving credit where it is due, these two programs continue to save millions of helpless lives. ORDER PLAGIARISM FREE PAPER