Monday, March 9, 2015

HealthCare Costs Verses Medicare Challenges

"Healthcare cost have been rising more rapidly than the cost of living for the last 20 years. Spending is expected to exceed income beginning in 2012. By the year 2030, the number of people on Medicare will have almost doubled from 40 million to 78 million, and the number of workers (paying into Medicare) is projected to have declined from 4 workers per beneficiary to 2.4 workers per beneficiary. According to experts, Medicare reserves are projected to be depleted in 2029" (Ferrini & Ferrini, 2013 p.411) #Politics #USA #Medicare #healthcare #costs

Past suggestions for fixing Medicare include: reduce costs by enrolling a greater % of older people in managed care plans, raise co payments and deductibles, increase Social Security payroll taxes paid by working adults and employers (BOO!), increase the cap on taxable earnings (2011 Social Security tax was not paid on earnings above $106,800 and the rich people loved it), privatizing Medicare, reduce pay to hospitals and or physicians, raise eligibility age to 67 or older, use sliding scale of income and assets of participants to determine the amounts of co-payments and deductibles that the participant pays. In Jan. 2007 a sliding scale for Medicare plan B was implemented for elderly individuals with incomes of $80,000 a yr and above. And for elderly couples with incomes of $160,000 a year and above. Reference (Ferrini & Ferrini, 2013, p. 411)

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