Medicare: Taking care
of seniors:
Medicare is the next most loved
program after Social Security. While it
is hard to bring about change to such a popular program, the fixes themselves
are relatively easy. For one, means test
it so that only those who cannot afford health care will receive benefits. This makes it cheaper to run as less people
will be using the system.
Vouchers: An additional
modification can turn Medicare into a voucher system. How this works is that the enrollee will
receive a monthly lump sum into a health care savings account (HSA). The money in the HSA will be un-taxable as
the money going in has already been taxed, unless you want double taxation
(they already double tax us with Social Security benefits for we were taxed to
put the money in and then we are taxed for taking the money out). That money in the HSA can then be spent on
any medical procedure, medicine, doctor visit or monthly health insurance premium. The HSA can have its funds supplemented via
private funds being put in or as an addition the money can be used to invest in
health care related industries to get higher rates of return to further
supplement your HSA with the interest earned. An HSA has an even bigger
benefit, no paper work for the doctor.
The only potential for abuse would be for who receives the voucher. This means only recipients would have to be
policed and doctors would have more free time to look after patients rather
than paperwork. Think a voucher wont
work, well look at Medicare part D which runs using something similar to a
voucher program. Here the retiree is
given money which is then used to buy health insurance to provide for their
prescription drugs. Also, Medicare part
D is the only part of Medicare that is under budget.
More solutions: Other solutions to reduce overall
costs to the health care system come in the form of freeing up the health care
systems restrictions. These solutions
are; one, allow people to buy health insurance from any company any where in
the United States and allow associations and groups to provide their own basic
health care customized to their employees should they desire it. This solution ends the State monopolies on
health insurance and the health insurance industries monopoly on health
insurance. Basically each employer would create their own form of coverage for their employees and if the employee wants more coverage of a special type of coverage they can buy out of State without the State government deciding what has to be covered and what shouldn't. As a result, with this new
found competition, health care costs and health insurance costs should drop. This also makes Medicare far less expansive
as it has to dish out less money to cover procedures and medicines. Two, make it so drug companies can produce
their medications in unlimited quantities.
Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restricts how much of
a medication can be produced in the given year.
This drives up costs on some drugs if demand for a drug peeks, while
demand for another drug decreases which causes a financial loss to the drug
company causing them to raise the prices of their other medications to
compensate. By doing this you decrease
costs on medications which will allow drug companies to have a steady stream of
money to develop new medications while making it cheaper for Americans to buy
medication and for health insurers and government health care to cover the
costs of higher priced medicines.
Why are we taxing this stuff: The next solution to reduce medical
costs and reduce costs to programs like Medicare and Medicaid is to stop taxing
medical coverage as it is not income.
Currently the IRS treats medical coverage by employers and individuals
as income, and thus it is taxed. The
only time an individual should be taxed (if at all) is when we pay our monthly
premium. While the only time the
insurance company should pay taxes is on their yearly earnings. But the coverage itself is not income, and
taxing it drives up costs of doctor visits, treatments and health insurance
premiums. The result is a more costly
health care system. (next Monday will explain this issue in greater detail)
More radical: The final idea for Medicare is you
can bring it down to the State level, which at current is a highly unlikely
scenario. If we were to bring it down to
the State level we would have to do something similar to what we talked about
with Medicaid. This would mean means
testing combined with the living expenses adjustment, specialized clinics for
seniors which can be combined with the ones for Medicaid. Specialist homes for
seniors where private ones are unavailable, which also can be combined with the
specialist homes for the disabled. Maybe
a system that has seniors treated in their own home to reduce facility costs
while maintaining care (some States are experimenting with this model like Ohio
Conclusion: The goal of Medicare is to care for
our senior citizens. There are numerous
other options available including changing eligibility requirements and what
benefits are provided. It is really up
to us to choose which one protects our seniors the best and make it happen.
See you tomorrow for Social Security.
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