Healthcare Policy Bill and Changes to the Medicare - Essay Example

The changes to Medicare in 2003 were deemed necessary. Before the introduction of this bill, many elderly people in the United States had been facing difficulties in accessing prescription medication because of its higher costs. Hence, redesigning Medicare was essential to ensure an adequate supply of affordable prescription medication and more affordable healthcare plans to the concerned beneficiaries.

In addition, it was estimated that Medicare financing would go out of control by 2026 if the Medicare expenses grew at the current rate. Hence, the proposed changes were extremely necessary to reduce the overall Medicare expenses and to improve the quality of services offered to its stakeholders. The recommended changes would significantly increase competition among healthcare providers and this situation, in turn, might provide senior citizens with better choices. According to Kemper (2004), the policy change budgeted $400 billion and this amount was deemed adequate to offer prescription medication to nearly 40 million seniors at an affordable rate.

As per the provisions of the new plan, authorities will pay 75% of the costs up to $2,250. In total, the changes to Medicare were necessary to improve the healthcare system and its efficiency. As Ganz (2004) points out, the main provisions of the new legislation include affordable distribution of the prescription medication to seniors, partial privatization of healthcare, and promotion of increased competition among healthcare providers. The bill was specifically enacted to cut down the costs of prescription drugs for the elderly population in the country.

The Federal Government believed that this bill would ensure the participation of private healthcare providers. It was also believed that increased competition among providers would help the senior population to obtain improved and cheap Medicare services. - Although the bill is useful to reduce the costs of prescription medication, the new legislation is less likely to accomplish the desired goals. This law change promotes the privatization of Medicare. 

In short, the policy change may negatively impact the overall quality of Medicare.  - Evidently, the electronically stored data such as costs and access to individual patient files played an important role in the decision-making process. This type of data assists regulators to statistically analyze the financial aspects of the policy and the economic feasibility of the proposed change. It is evident that electronically stored form of data is easy to be analyzed. Also, it can be effectively employed to reach immediate conclusions.