Health Nursing policy W6 R

Assignment

(Note from me: you have already help with the main part of the assignment. The part that I want you to work on now is to help me responds to two post from to different colleagues. I have attached their post so read it and give a respond to their post. Just a page or less will be fine as long as it meets the discussion)

· Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) services are funded through a payroll tax.

· That tax is paid by people who are still working and economically productive.

· The people who receive the benefits are older, generally retired (or disabled), and thus economically “non-productive.”

· Thus, with a rapidly aging population, there are rapidly growing numbers of Medicare beneficiaries whose services are paid for by generally younger people who are still working (and whose ranks are not growing nearly as fast as their seniors).

· Is that fair? Is it sustainable?

· What, if a anything, should be done about it?

· Respond to at least (2) of your colleague’s postings over the course of the week to continue the dialogue. 

DISCUSSION POSTER 1

In my opinion I believe it is necessary to have a system such as medicare to help pay for the elderly individuals in our society. The goals that “Medicare, the federal health insurance program for 57 million people ages 65 and over and younger people with permanent disabilities, helps to pay for hospital and physician visits, prescription drugs, and other acute and postacute care services” (Cubanski, 2017). When this population was able to, they paid into these taxes, so I think it is right for them to benefit when it’s their “turn.” There is a concern when it comes to the increasing population size of the elderly community and how this can ultimately require increased taxes for the working younger community. How do we compensate for the increasing size of the elderly population? There are also other factors that play into this such as growing prices of healthcare services. This does not seem like a sustainable system because as the elderly population increases, the demand for medicare will increase as well. The combination of increased enrollment in medicare, increased use of services, and rising Healthcare prices will prove this current system to be faulty (Cubanski, 2017). 

Some current thoughts on improving this issue include “increased payroll taxes, increased beneficiary cost sharing, or reductions in Medicare payments to hospitals and other health care organizations that provide Part A services” (Ayanian, 2020). I am not sure what the best way to fix this situation would be. I think the first step would be to go over who qualifies for medicare. There are some requirements such as working and paying taxes through wages but are there individuals who find loop holes around these requirements, but end up benefiting from Medicare in the end. There also seems to be an unequal balance when it comes to who pays taxes. Most of the wealthier population can write off taxes by other purchases or donations but how does this affect how much money medicare gets to distribute. There must be loopholes that individuals go through in order to not pay taxes and I am not sure the best way to combat this.

Ayanian, J. O. Z. (2020, November 11). Saving medicare for Baby Boomers and beyond-a looming fiscal crisis. JAMA Health Forum. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2773054

Cubanski, J., & Neuman, T. (2017, July). Issue brief facts on Medicaid spending and financing. nih.gov. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/master/borndig/101754945/Issue-Brief-Facts-on-Medicaid-Spending-and-Financing.pdf

DISCUSSION POSTER 2

Medicare Part A was established many years ago to accomodate for elderly Americans that had inadequate health insurance or no coverage at all. This service covers inpatient care in a hospital, care at skilled nursing facilities, nursing home care, hospice, and home health (Medicare.gov). This service is typically for people that are older and retired and it is funded through a payroll tax by people that are actively working. Considering the fact that our population is rapidly aging and the number of Medicare beneficiaries are also rapidly increasing, it makes sense to wonder if this is a sustainable program. The article “Built to last? The sustainability of health system improvements, interventions and change strategies: a study protocol for a systematic review” notes that “ageing populations and increasing demands for services present substantial challenges to the affordability of healthcare systems, making the need for an urgent solution all the more necessary” (Braithwaite et al., 2017).

Personally, I do think it is fair for the older population to benefit from Medicare services as I believe that all people should have access to healthcare, and they likely spent their entire career paying toward Medicare services as well. With the cost of healthcare, I do not see how the younger working generation will be able to support this program for a much larger older population. Some ideas to allow Medicare services to continue benefiting the elderly population include increasing taxes, increasing co-payments, or reducing benefits. While none of these ideas are ideal, it is less ideal for the program to be cut all together. This is a complex issue and I don’t have the answers, but there is no doubt that changes need to happen in order to allow these services to continue providing health coverage for the rapidly aging population in our country.

Braithwaite, J., Testa, L., Lamprell, G., Herkes, J., Ludlow, K., McPherson, E., Campbell, M., & Holt, J. (2017). Built to last? The sustainability of health system improvements, interventions and change strategies: a study protocol for a systematic review. BMJ open, 7(11), e018568. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018568

What part A covers. Medicare.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2022, from https://www.medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers/what-part-a-covers