Medicare & Medicaid: Health Insurance for All Ages - Essay Sample

Introduction

Medicare is a centralized program that provides health insurance coverage if one is 65 year and above or below 65 and has disability despite how much they earn while Medicaid is a national program that provides health insurance coverage if a citizen has the meager income to cater for their health expenses barely. Medicare and Medicaid were consented in 1965, and thus, they serve the same purpose of the government; to ensure low health cost on the most susceptible United States' population (Rowland, 2003). The paper will focus on the challenges facing Medicare and Medicaid programs in healthcare.

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Increased spending on both programs has seen most of the operations in the health sector lag. Entire State budget stood at $3.5 trillion where Medicare accounted $492 billion thus raising the alarm if the two programs will become sustainable in future with the yearly increase in the cost allocated in the budget (Coben et al., 2015). With the fact that taxes charged on citizens finance Medicare and Medicaid, it only means one thing: to sustain the two programs the taxes imposed on citizens will rise radically.

Notably, most healthcare service providers misuse the programs through improper payments such that they may get paid for under treating, not treating at all and payment of the wrong amount (King, 2010). The Centers noted this issue for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMC) in the year 200 thus, measures such as proper enrollment and background checks should be done on all service providers to tame improver payment problem.

The people with Medicaid cover and low income have issues accessing the specialists such as dentists and doctors compared to the privately insured, thus limiting them from accessing the healthcare facilities paid for by the programs. (Phil, 2015).Therefore, CMS should ensure that all patients receive equal and fair services from the service providers. Also, the programs offer comprehensive cover for only the people with disability and the elderly and the other population that includes the youth is not comprehensively covered making it hard for them to access health services in cases of financial constraint.

Conclusion

Affordable and efficient healthcare is essential. Therefore the government should ensure this is achieved through coming up with strategies to deal with the challenges facing Medicare and Medicaid. With the increased overpayment cases, CMC should guarantee proper enrollment of the service providers'.Still before paying they should submit the prescription plan for check up to avoid instances of overpayment in the future.

References

Cohen, A. B., Colby, D. C., Wailoo, K. A., & Zelizer, J. E. (Eds.). (2015). Medicare & Medicaid at 50: America's Entitlement Programs in the Age of Affordable Care. Oxford University Press. Retrieved From Medicare and Medicaid at 50 eBook by | Rakuten Kobo. https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/medicare-and-medicaid-at-50-americas-entitlement-programs-in-the-age-of-affordable-care

King, K. M., (2010). Medicare Fraud, Waste, and Abuse: Challenges and Strategies For Preventing Improper Payments. GAO Reports, June 15.Retrieved From https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=0GxA1orKNWQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=medicare+fraud,waste+and+abuse&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwid66r7nLviAhWRDxQKHV7HDQsQ6AEIJjAA

Phil, G (2015).Challenges Facing Medicaid at 50. Kaiser Health News Retrieved From https://khn.org/news/5-challenges-facing-medicaid-at-50/

Rowland, D., (2003). Medicaid: Issues and Challenges. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved From https://khn.org/news/5-challenges-facing-medicaid-at-50/