The elderly are negatively affected by delayed care services and burdensome medication costs. Insufficient insurance cover, widening disparities, and rising medication costs have made it difficult for the elderly to access quality medication (Yamada et al., 2015). Patients defer treatment as they are expected to pay for their health care services out of their pocket, resulting in delayed care and medical complications. Treating complicated conditions generate a burden on the healthcare system, which increases the cost of discharging timely-quality health care. Discrimination in the health care sector affects the elderly. Research by Du and Xu (2016) indicates that whites and US-born Asians receive better healthcare services as compared to African-Americans, Latinos, foreign-born Asians, and foreign-born Latinos.
Health care disparities among the elderly can be solved by establishing just system of equal distribution of healthcare costs. Justice can only be justice if all races are given equal treatment. The elderly should be charged lower prices. The charges among the elderly should also be calculated based on economic status. Poorer adults should be charged less than wealthier adults should. Yamada et al. (2015) suggest an Equal distribution of the healthcare costs across the population. However, such a system does not resolve the dilemma of poorer older adults or consider the reality that younger generations are productive. When the just balanced system is adopted, Allowing the younger and stable generation to pay more for the healthcare cost, it will translate in the future when the younger generation is elderly.
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The system acts as a form of insurance even though one may not benefit directly due to unpredictable occurrences such as early death. Lowering the costs by allowing younger generations to pay more and elderly to pay less will enable the elderly to access timely health care services. The impact will be lower cases of critical medical conditions hence lower health care provision costs across all ages. Medical costs increase with age resulting from increased impairments and comorbidity in the elderly (Hazra, Rudisill & Gulliford, 2018). Managing their medical conditions before they are compounded will reduce the costs.
References
Du, Y., & Xu, Q. (2016). Health disparities and delayed health care among older adults in California: a perspective from race, ethnicity, and immigration. Public Health Nursing, 33 (5): 383-394.
Hazra, N. C., Rudisill, C., & Gulliford, M. C. (2018). Determinants of health care costs in the senior elderly: age, comorbidity, impairment, or proximity to death? The European Journal of Health Economics, 19 (6): 831-842.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Murata, C., Hirai, H., Ojima, T., & Kondo, K. (2015). Access disparity and health inequality of the elderly: unmet needs and delayed healthcare. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12 (2): 1745-1772.
