Is Medicare Funding Adequate for the Care of its Population - Research Paper Example

Is Medicare Funding adequate for the care of its population Background Medicare is the national insurance program of the USA government, which provides affordable health insurance to the senior citizens over the age of 65. Later the program was expanded to cover citizens who are physically disabled either congenitally or by accident and also to citizens suffering from end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The Medicare Insurance Program is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of the US Government. This department is responsible for monitoring the health and well being of all the American citizens. The Medicare Program of HHS is the largest health insurer of the USA, which deals with over one billion claims each year. The Medicare Program along with the Medicaid Policy of the HHS provides health insurance to a large number of American citizens.1 To be covered under Medicare, a citizen should be eligible to receive Social Security: it is mandatory for senior citizens to have contributed to the “Social Security” fund from their salary for at least ten years of their employment tenure. In 2004, about 42.3 million US citizens were covered under Medicare. A quarter of the Federal Reserve Bank’s outlays are designated to the HHS every year. The Department administers a huge amount of grant dollars each fiscal year that is usually greater than the grants of all the federal agencies taken together. For this reason, the funding of the Medicare Insurance Program has always been a politically sensitive issue. This paper examines whether the Medicare Program covers sufficient number of the eligible population and whether the funding of the program is adequate for its population.1 2 Data Presentation Table 1 expresses total Medicare Enrollees of each state of the USA as a percentage of its total population as in 2009 Table 1: Medicare Enrollment as a Percentage of Resident Population State-wise3     Resident Population   Medicare Enrollees   Enrollees as Percent of Population All Areas NA 46,520,716 1 NA United States 307,006,550 45,466,997 2 14.8 Alabama 4,708,708 827,594 17.6 Alaska 698,473 62,707 9.0 Arizona 6,595,778 899,487 13.6 Arkansas 2,889,450 520,377 18.0 California 36,961,664 4,619,642 12.5 Colorado 5,024,748 601,992 12.0 Connecticut 3,518,288 558,107 15.9 Delaware 885,122 145,065 16.4 District of Columbia 599,657 76,694 12.8 Florida 18,537,969 3,289,117 17.7 Georgia 9,829,211 1,193,887 12.1 Hawaii 1,295,178 200,305 15.5 Idaho 1,545,801 221,962 14.4 Illinois 12,910,409 1,806,475 14.0 Indiana 6,423,113 985,107 15.3 Iowa 3,007,856 511,615 17.0 Kansas 2,818,747 425,444 15.1 Kentucky 4,314,113 743,418 17.2 Louisiana 4,492,076 671,294 14.9 Maine 1,318,301 259,090 19.7 Maryland 5,699,478 764,123 13.4 Massachusetts 6,593,587 1,039,299 15.8 Michigan 9,969,727 1,614,512 16.2 Minnesota 5,266,214 766,806 14.6 Mississippi   2,951,996   487,978   16.5 Table 2 has divided the entire US population in 2009 according to their respective providers of insurance Table 2: The Health Insurance Status of the Total US Population in 20094 Table 3: Total Number of US Citizens insured under Medicare Program in 2010 and 2030 (projected)5 Analysis It has to be borne in mind that the US Government provides the Medicare program for a select section of its population: senior citizens of 65 years of age and above, physically disabled persons and people in the final stage of renal disease. The paper analyzes whether the Medicare Funding is adequate for this part of the US population. Table 1 shows that in 2009, only 14.8 % of the total population of the USA was covered under the Medicare Insurance Program. Considering the state-wise data, the percentage of their respective population who were under the purview of Medicare varied approximately between 9 % -21 %. Among the different states, Utah recorded the lowest percentage where Medicare Enrollees consisted of only 9% of the population of the State. In contrast, in West Virginia citizens insured under the Medicare Program was 20.7% of the state’s population. Though Medicare enrollees comprised a small percentage of the total population in each of the States, it has to be remembered that only the elderly citizens, the disabled persons and those suffering from ESRD were considered as eligible to be insured under Medicare. These three categories of people taken together would comprise a limited section of the total population. The Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled from only this section of the population and therefore their number reflects a comparatively small percentage of the entire population. As of 2010, the Medicare Insurance Program covered 47 million US citizens, which included 39 million elderly people aged 65 years or above and 8 million non-elderly disabled persons. The number of people insured under Medicare has doubled during the period 1966-2000 and it is again expected to double to 80 million by the year 2030. Table 3 presents these figures. This data implies that the present Medicare Funding needs to be expanded to include the eligible people who are not yet covered by the Medicare Insurance Program. Table 2 gives an idea about the distribution of different types of insurance among the total US population in 2009. Persons insured under the Medicare Program comprised of only 12 per cent of the entire populace. As much as 49% of the population was covered under their respective Employer’s insurance while only 1% of citizens subscribed to Public Insurance policies other than Medicare and Medicaid. About 17% of the total US population has been shown to be uninsured. Persons not covered under any insurance program still comprise a sizeable portion of the population which implies that the different insurance providers in the US economy have enough opportunities to expand their customer base. Among this 17% of the uninsured population, a considerable portion will be comprised of the elderly people and the disabled persons. Therefore, in spite of the wide coverage of the Medicare Program, there still remains considerable scope for its expansion. It can be inferred that the present funding of the Medicare Program is not sufficient to cover all members of the eligible population. There is still provision for further expansion Conclusion The Medicare Insurance Program of the USA covered 47 million people as of 2010 and is expected to almost double to insure 80 million citizens by 2030. The Medicare Program insures only the elderly population, the disabled persons and those suffering from ESRD. The issue of funding of the Medicare Program has always been a politically sensitive matter in the country. From the data analyzed in the paper, it is seen that persons insured under Medicare comprise a comparatively small percentage of the total population of USA as well as that of the individual states. This leaves sufficient provision for the Medicare Program to expand and cover the remaining eligible members of the population under its purview. For implementing such a step, the funding of the Program has to be adequately increased. There is a common notion that the Medicare Program should be extended to include other sections of the population who need special care. Many health experts feel that the Medicare Program should be expanded to include the visually impaired population under its coverage. As of 2011, 6.5 million US citizens aged 55 years and older belonged to this category and their number is expected to increase by more than double by 20306. Presently, the Medicare program provides reimbursement for special vision restoration services which are recommended by an ophthalmologist. In order to undertake such a program, the finances to the Insurance Program have to be escalated. Therefore, it is important for Medicare Program funding to increase to maintain the care of its present population and to expand the purview of the entire program. References 1. About HHS, US Department of Health and Human Services (n.d), October 1, 2011 from http://www.hhs.gov/ 2. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, US Department of Health and Human Services, 2011 from http://www.cms.gov/DataCompendium/14_2010_Data_Compendium.asp#TopOfPage 3. Health Coverage and Uninsured, Statehealthfacts (n.d), October 1, 2011 from http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparecat.jsp?cat=3&rgn=6&rgn=1 4. Medicare Chartbook Fourth Edition 2010, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, (2011), October 1, 2011 from http://facts.kff.org/chart.aspx?cb=58&sctn=162&p=1 5. Longley, Robert, Is the US Really that Uninsured, Us Government Info October 1, 2011 from http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/medicarehealthinsurance/a/insurancestats.htm 6. Vision Rehabilitation Services for Older People who are Visually Impaired, American Foundation for the Blind (2011), October 1, 2011 from http://www.afb.org/section.asp?SectionID=44&TopicID=188 Read More