Question

Based on what you have learned and your own research what do you think would be feasible solutions to Medicare raising costs?

Answer 1

The feasible solutions to medicare raising costs:

• Based on what you have learned and your own research what do you think would be feasible solutions to Medicare raising costs?In order to prevent Medicare from raising costs, costs must be controlled.Cost control needs to occur at the provider side as well as on the patient side.The components of Medicare are Part A, Hospital Costs and Long Term Care; Part B, Physicianor outpatient expenses; and Part C, Prescription Drug Coverage. Medicare mainly covers the elderly above 65 or disabled individuals.
• In general, when attempting to control insurance costs, one must begin with risk management. The following challenges make cost savings politically difficult, if not utopic.Pooling of Elderly InsuredAs Medicare covers largely the elderly population, there is a given cost level associated with the fact that a pool of insured elderly and disabled, even a huge national pool, will invariablybe at the higher end of incurring adverse events and resulting in higher medical costs.
• Although the pool is sufficiently large to prevent true prediction of risk, given the age of the insured, costs would be expected to be higher.As the government is the insurer of the elderly and the disabled, it has put itself in the impossible situation of providing endless healthcare to an aging population. I do not know where I stand on this subject as I would want all the care available regardless of my age at the time when I am ill.

Therefore, I am not for cutting of benefits, increasing coinsurance payments, out of pocket expenses, or copayments. I believe these are unimaginative, stale adjustments that are counter intuitive to the so-called paternalistic motive for intervention by which the government seeks to ensure consumption smoothing for individuals who are not otherwise, safe from adverse events and medical conditions. I believe that innovation allows us to realize significant cost cutting now. I believe in the exploration of the information that will become available as part of this cost cutting measure, we will gain new insights that will then enable us to further diagnose the cost challenge in new ways.

1. Use data to drive down cost

2. Analyze the data for new insights

3. Determine the 2nd phase of improving health care (medicare)

Health Incentives for the Elderly:

• Before I get into the data part, I want to elaborate on a low cost approach that surely will yield medical benefits and lower health care costs for Medicare.
• I have been privileged to have met my neighbors about 11 years ago, when I moved into myhome. They are now 85 and 80 years old. Over the years, close bouts with near death have been overcome and I played an active role in standing guard overnight in emergency rooms,and assisting in communications, etc.
• Medicare is a Public social insurance program that is administered by the federal government, and presently using approximately 30 private insurance companies within the United States. It offers health insurance for U.S citizens aged 65 years and above, who have worked and also made payments to the system. Besides, it also offers health insurance to young individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, end stage renal, and any forms of disabilities.
• Medicare provides health insurance cover to over 48 million individuals, and for that case, it serves a large population across America (Gruber, 2013). In the long run, the cost of providing this service has been on the increase in the recent past owing to the current financial crisis facing the healthcare industry in the U.S. Therefore, this paper seeks to establish a critical analysis of feasible solutions to Medicare raising costs.

Discussion:

• Although it is a difficult task to reduce Medicare costs, limiting spending to resourceful uses can provide a potential avenue for reducing the raising Medicare costs. Here is a closer look at some of the key interventions to reduce the raising Medicare costs.

Increasing the competition for health insurance:

•   When a single entity provides health insurance service, it tends to misuse the existing monopoly by twisting prices anyhow. However, by increasing competition among firms providing health insurance services, then it is apparent that most of these firms will have to reduce the cost of Medicare services (Gruber, 2013).

Increasing the age for eligibility :

• Increasing the age for eligibility from age 65 to a figure like 67 can eliminate a considerable amount of the current deficit facing Medicare provision (Gruber, 2013). In the long run, the contained deficit will result into a decrease in Medicare costs.

Eliminating some covered services :

• At present, Medicare primarily covers the services needed for the treatment of either a disease or an injury. However, it does not cover long-term care or the prescription of drugs (Gruber, 2013). By terminating the coverage of such services can solve around two-fifths of the entire Medicare’s long-range deficit, which will in turn lead to reduced costs.

Increasing recoveries from other insurance companies:

• In review, Medicare is often a secondary payer to other types of health insurance like employer-sponsored insurance, worker’s compensation, auto liability insurance, and Veterans administration benefits (Gruber, 2013). However, expanding the circumstances in which Medicare should be regarded a secondary payer can help reduce Medicare costs by far.

Reducing payment rates to providers :

• In order to contain the raising Medicare costs, it is important for the rates under which Medicare reimburses are provided through RBRVS and DRGs to be reduced or the yearly increases limited.

Conclusion :

• In conclusion, the healthcare industry faces a great challenge of averting the increasing Medicare costs. However, with the abovementioned proposals, Medicare costs can be contained and other related health insurance normalized.