Elderly persons continue to face numerous challenges with regards to achieving proper healthcare services. The crisis of healthcare is fast looming. That is attributed to the jumbled patchwork of insurance programs, soaring costs of healthcare, and other crucial issues in delivering medical care. For person’s especially elderly populations who are not protected by insurance, illness becomes a tremendous financial disaster. Spending on the elderly healthcare programs has continued to rise since 1965. Such an increase in expenditure can mainly be attributed to the rising costs to the state and federal governments of operating the Medicaid and Medicare services as well as a rise in the out of pocket expenses that the older persons incur. Financing of healthcare has become a crucial policy issue that needs to be addressed by the nation. Politics plays a key role in healthcare and associated financial resources.
Medicaid and Medicare remain the critical sources of support for the elderly generation. That is important for easier access to healthcare and in addressing financial issues. Medicaid helps in providing medical services to the poor under state guidelines (Hudson, 2016). Regarding the elderly, Medicaid pays for medical services in the category that attains Supplementary Security Income standards and persons that have incurred sufficiently high healthcare expenditures. There is continuous effort to reevaluate the program structure and with keen interest in the long-term services ( Moon, 2016). That in cooperates reimbursement of the providers especially cares homes and also, to change the income eligibility levels.
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Medicare is one the major support programs that covers approximately 95 percent of all persons aged 65 and above within the United States. Medicare covers major separate complementary programs, and that entails hospital insurance supplementary Medical Insurance. Insurance coverage that deals with outpatient mental health services functions under very high restrictions. Moon (2016) further noted that s ome services that are key and occasionally used by the older persons for instance eyeglasses, dental services, and outpatient drugs are not covered. That profoundly limits the elderly persons from accessing this instrumental medical equipment and services (Hudson, 2016). From 1977 and 1984, payments of services under Medicare realized an increased rate of 17.3 percent annually. The Medicare expenditure for the elderly registered an amount of $58.5 billion, and it became the third most abundant federal program. The rapid growth in the program costing led to lots of changes in the reimbursement from the federal government. That caused a tremendous effect on the quality of healthcare delivered to the elderly individuals. Lots of other changes continue to take place to reduce the hefty cost to the disadvantage of the older population ( Moon, 2016) . Healthcare institutions are paid fixed amounts of money, and the institutions use such disbursement to take care of the patients based on the discharge diagnosis. The federal is keenly working on reducing its expenditure on healthcare by and introducing cost-sharing equipment, raising the premium costs, and altering the eligibility age. Further, it is working on making Medicare the second source of payment for those that are employed and are liable for employer-given health insurance and altering the Medicare program into a voucher program.
Chronic diseases have become a subject of intense debate in the United States healthcare fraternity. The chronic diseases pose significant issues since they are long-lasting and occasionally life-long. Chronic diseases are potentially not curable and place a considerable load on an individual’s life and that of the family ( Gaugler, 2016) . The disease is often characterized by progressive onset that contains multiple and in most cases, misunderstood causes. Chronic diseases are therefore a disaster not only for the elderly but to the entire community in general. The costs of treatment are quite high due to the type of equipment that is required and also, the kind of personnel’s that are needed to attend to such type of patients. The elderly persons have weaker structures and ligaments and that further complicates the treatment process. The menace of chronic diseases being an on and off problem further complicates the life of the older individuals ( Gaugler, 2016) . Continues management requires further resources that might not be at the disposal of both the family and the affected person. The federal government is still working long-term ways of curbing the issue of chronic diseases (Hudson, 2016).
The rising cost of healthcare can be attributed to an increasing demand for healthcare. That implies that the spending on the same goes high ( Gaugler, 2016) . One can also argue that the current increase in the insurance cover methods have motivated hospitals to increase their costs. The increase in the sophistication and expensiveness of equipment as time progress is far much high than what is wanted by the public.
It is essential to re-evaluate the financing programs regarding program eligibility, and the extent of income can be utilized to access the public health programs ( Gorman, 2017) . The appropriate beneficiary levels in cost sharing and the degree of quality care should also be assessed.
In conclusion, it is apparent that the elderly persons face enormous challenges in present America with regards to receiving quality care. The cost of care through the various has become excessively expensive. Further, some are affected by chronic diseases that complicate the nature and quality of care that they receive. It is essential for the government entities to work on a [platform and structure that will enable the elderly to achieve affordable quality healthcare.
References
Gaugler, J. E. (2016). Innovations in long-term care. In Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences (Eighth Edition) (pp. 419-439).
Gorman, M. (2017). Development and the rights of older people. In The ageing and development report (pp. 21-39). Routledge.
Hudson, R. B. (2016). Politics and policies of aging in the United States. In Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences (Eighth Edition) (pp. 441-459).
Moon, M. (2016). Organization and financing of health care. In Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences (Eighth Edition) (pp. 397-417).
