Reforming Medicare Cost-Sharing: Protecting Beneficiaries From High Costs - Essay Sample

Introduction

Medicare is a type of plan for healthcare offered by a company intended to provide health benefits to the beneficiaries. Most of the Medicare plans offer drug prescription coverage to the beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare service plan. To reduce federal deficits and spending, policymakers in Washington have come up with policies to redesign Medicare cost-sharing. Some of the policymakers in the United States have proposed to redesign the program to safeguard the beneficiaries from the high cost of spending and to align better incentives to minimize the overuse of Medicare services as well as to potentially lower the costs of spending for the United States (Moon, 1999). On the other hand, opponents believe that such reforms of reducing federal spending will add costs to the beneficiaries, thus making them not to seek the needed care. Even though some people believe that redesigning Medicare services will enhance and improve the structure, others think that the reform is a mechanism of minimizing federal government spending.

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Summary of Significant Points in the Article and the Video

In the United States, the redesigning of Medicare services has been a controversial issue among many people. In essence, research such as in videos and articles have analyzed Medicare services. For instance, in the article of Amada Cassidy (2013), "Health Policy Brief" (Cassidy, 2013) talks about redesigning Medicare in the United States for purposes of reducing government spending. In this regard, the article specifically addresses the issue of policymakers, who proposed to redesign the structure of Medicare to reduce the costs of federal spending. Also, the article in question discusses the views and opinions of both the opponents and proponents for restructuring Medicare services. As a result, proponents believe in the sense that redesigning Medicare will ultimately minimize federal spending. While on the other hand, opponents suggest that the majority of the beneficiaries will not, in any case, be able to meet the cost of their healthcare (Berenson et al., 2017). other people in the United States firmly believe that redesigning Medicare will eventually help the federal government to save more funds. However, others think that beneficiaries may not in a position to meet the costs of their medical expenses. Hence, the US government should not whatsoever reduce the benefits of Medicare services.

Nonetheless, the video "Challenges and Opportunities Facing Medicare in 2030" analyses some of the agents that play a very critical role in redesigning Medicare. Concerning the video, it shows the future aspects of Medicare in 2030 considering the forecasts of very critical aspects such as a change in the education system, character smokers, and demographics in the United States. For instance, the rise of Hispanic people showed that more old aged people in the United States need a lot of care. Since the Hispanic people have large and extended families, and then they are willing to take care of their old aged (Brooking Institution, 2015). Besides, the video suggests that in 2030, many people will have access to education as compared to the present; thus, they will meet their daily medical expenses and needs. In the same year, there will be a reduction of smokers in the United States. Consequently, the video has shown a rise in income of the old aged people as well as stating the significance of enjoying the benefits of using drugs to reduce federal spending by bringing forth Medicare plan closer to the people.

Common Arguments Mentioned in Both the Video and the Article

In both the video and the article, there are very common agendas discussed therein. In both aspects, they stated a combination of three parts; A, B, and C, aimed at reducing federal spending (Aaron, & Lambrew, 2009). Also, they stated the application of federal out-of-pocket expenditure as well as the supplemental use of insurance services, which enhance payment out-of-the-pocket spending mechanisms. The article stated that "In part to deal with the expense and uncertainty of the Medicare cost-sharing, most beneficiaries in traditional Medicare have help covering out-of-pocket costs from some form of supplemental insurance" (Cassidy, 2013). These supplemental insurances are a form of private brokers that assists in paying for co-pays, out-of-pocket expenses, and deductibles for the beneficiaries.

Explain How the Video and the Article Relate to What We Studied in This Class or Something That You’ve Learned Outside the Classroom

The presentation from the article and the video have assisted me in learning more about how policies are developed and formulated in different settings. In essence, I have significantly learned about the policymaking process in areas such as media and how policymakers take into consideration factors that can affect their decision-making process. In the same note, I learned from the video that policymakers analyses various parts that have an impact on the use of Medicare services such as technology, demographics, and educational changes (Cassidy, 2013). Likewise, I have access to lots of information concerning various parts of Medicare, which include; part A which covers post-acute care, hospice, home health, and inpatient healthcare services. Part B is primarily for purposes of outpatient healthcare, clinical, and doctor lab services provided at inpatient stay. At the same time, part D covers the voluntary cost of drug prescription for beneficiaries through private services in traditional Medicare.

The proponents of restructuring Medicare have the thought that redefining Medicare services will minimize budgeting and, as a result, increase savings of a particular organization. For instance, the book "Restructuring Medicare: The False Promise of Premium Support" suggests that "heightened competition created by requiring beneficiaries to use their funds, dollar for dollar, to pay for plans more costly than the fixed contribution would reduce costs and produce savings for the government." However, the competition surrounding the issue in question will reduce healthcare plan bids giving Medicare services relevance; hence, it will put pressure on people using low-cost alternatives, leading to low government spending.

Supporters of redesigning Medicare service have the belief that when such individuals pay for their medical expenses, the federal government will not need to spend many finances on health care expenses and, in the end, will save a lot of money. On the other hand, the opponents will be worried concerning their healthcare expenses, taking into consideration the redesigning of Medicare by the federal government (Brooking Institution, 2015). Furthermore, the same opponents are also worried as a result of Medicare restructuring because they think that they will pay much money from their own pockets to meet their day-to-day medical expenses. In this regard, they have a thought that most of the individuals may not in a position to afford their medical expenses.

Research studies show that the proposal made by policymakers will distribute the burden and cost of the healthcare system among the susceptible vulnerable people in society. Furthermore, many scholars argue that redesigning Medicare would further increase the cost of healthcare services for those people with Medicare cover; hence low-income earners will not afford to meet their daily medical services (Cassidy, 2013). Also, these scholars believe that most of the beneficiaries cannot afford to finance their medical healthcare services. They are concerned primarily on the proposals composed of out-of-pocket caps or higher deductible; thus, it is very challenging for them to make payment for medical expenses out of their pockets as illustrated by the Kaiser Family Foundation and CBO from the article.

My Opinion Concerning Redesigning Medicare

From the video and the article, I think that redesigning Medicare services as well as lowering medical expenses, will make people not regularly visit their medical practitioners leading to day-to-day hospitalization. For instance, when people realized that seeing the doctor every day is very much expensive, they would be demoralized to go for a medical checkup; thus they won't be able to get to know what kind of the disease they are suffering from (Berenson et al., 2017). This may result in the development of more severe and chronic diseases that might be a bit expensive to cure. The article shows that an increase in copay is a result of a decrease in the use of drugs and physician visits. This corresponds to the increase in the hospitalization rates offsetting the savings caused by higher co-pay by about twenty percent.

Similarly, restructuring the Medicare plan might result in people being reluctant about their healthcare since they will be much worried about the cost of such medical expenses at the expense of their health hence leading to more dangerous and chronic diseases. When these people are very reluctant concerning their health, they are susceptible to dangerous and chronic ailments that are more challenging and expensive to cure (Cutler, 1997). Therefore, people might stay in hospitals for more days or months, depending on the nature of the disease leading to many medical expenses. In such a case, the government might reduce medical spending without necessarily cutting on the benefits of Medicare to individuals.

Nevertheless, Medicare services might provide some of the special finances to teaching and referral hospitals to hire medical practitioners covering their teaching and compensation costs. Research, however, has found that these payments are consistently higher than the actual cost of teaching, proposing a minimum subsidy that would not significantly affect the teaching activities such as hospitals (Cassidy, 2013). Through lowering these costs, the federal government can raise spending without significantly cutting on the Medicare benefits to the beneficiaries because the cut benefits can be an obstacle to low-income earners and the beneficiaries. Hence, the federal governments can lower the cost of spending by reducing other expenditures like financing graduate school in localities.

Conclusion

Having read the article and watch the video, redesigning Medicare will not, in any case, reduce federal government spending and will eventually result in more hospitalization for the majority of the beneficiaries. Most of the beneficiaries cannot afford to pay for their medical expenses and, as a result, cannot be in a position to take care of their health, leading to more spending and hospitalization (Moon, 1999). The government needs to find other ways of solving the issue in question to assist its people by cutting on unnecessary spending and diverting such funds to Medicare. Reducing such funding is an efficient way to the beneficiaries rather than cutting benefits to the deserving individuals.

References

Aaron, H., & Lambrew, J. M. (2009). Reforming Medicare: options, tradeoffs, and opportunities. Brookings Institution Press.

Berenson, R. A., Skopec, Laura., & Zuckerman, S.( 2017). Restructuring Medicare: The false promise of premium support.

Brooking Institution (2015, June 9). Challenges and opportunities facing Medicare in 2030. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK3iXBH33

QwCassel, C. K., Besdine, R. W., & Siegel, L. C. (1999). Restructuring Medicare For The Next Century: What Will Beneficiaries Need? Medicare reform should go beyond financing to address how the program can better serve older Americans. Health Affairs, 18(1), 118-131.

Cassidy, A (2013). Health policy brief: Restructuring Medicare. Health Affairs, 1-5. Doi:10.1377/hpb2013.13

Cutler, D. M. (1997). Restructur...