Sustainability Of Medicare

Lisa Joseph
MHM502
Medicare
12 November 2013
Sustainability of Medicare

Medicare comprises and estimated 12% of the federal budget. It is often on the forefront in the debate on how to moderate the growth of federal and health care spending. The key is the increase of aging Americans and increased cost of health care. (The Henry J. Kaiser Familty Foundation, 2010). In order to evaluate the current financial health and long term sustainability of Medicare, you have to look at several issues. When you look at the status of the Medicare program there are several fundamentally different concepts that are sometimes used interchangeably; the financial status of Medicare, the impact of the program on the federal budget, and the sustainability
This is a significant factor in calculating the spending from Medicare in the future. In addition, it is project that due to rising health care costs during the next ten year Medicare spending is projected to increase by 83% (Ochter). Medicare and associated programs are taking up a large portion in federal spending, second only to the Department of Defense. Based on this information at the current levels, that type of growth would not be sustainable. Unfortunately, this would increase the tax burden on individuals to help subsidize the cost. This falls on the working American. Based on the current trends, the working population is decreasing while, people over the age of 65 is increasing significantly. This is due in part to the “baby boomer”
Based on information the Medicare program is due to start running out of money in 2024 (Carey, 2011). In addition to the amount of people over 65, another issue is that they are living longer. This puts an additional strain on the Medicare program. The biggest hurdle in order to continue Medicare is to reduce the cost in the health care system. It is imperative to control spending. Unfortunately, the programs issues are affected by the political atmosphere at any given time. Therein lies the problem, in order to obtain the necessary reform, it is necessary to have a political climate that perpetuates the changes needed to keep the solvency of Medicare on the right track. The key is to making the issues a popular issue that budget cuts in other areas in order to make sure that the program will continue. If a broad spectrum plan is not in place it could impact the beneficiaries themselves. This would happen by cutting benefit payments to for services necessary. Some doctors at this time are currently accepting Medicare patients, therefore cutting the availability of quality health care and the affordability of