Medicare Challenges Discussion Paper
Medicare is one of the federal programs that is widely debated in the society. Regardless of one’s political position, it is clear that it helps people to gain much-needed medical attention. However, it often happens that many experience various difficulties while they pay for and receive healthcare-related benefits that they are entitled to according to this program. Given a large number of such challenges, it may be logical to discuss only several of them.Medicare Challenges Discussion Paper
The first and the biggest one focuses on the need to prove one’s financial status to confirm one’s eligibility. It is rather obvious that Medicare operates with a limited budget. That is why as soon as a person makes more than the minimum requirement, one should start paying one’s own money for health insurance so that a different person could benefit from this program. So, in order to receive benefits one should prove that one needs them.
Secondly, sometimes it may be rather difficult for a person to define a medical problem and make sure that the medical attention will be covered by the insurance. This results in a situation when an individual must make the most of the resources that one has and choose the right doctors so that the visits will be reimbursed. There is no doubt that some medical conditions require an interdisciplinary approach which complicates the application of Medicare insurance.Medicare Challenges Discussion Paper
All this leads to the third challenge that should be discussed, namely the exaggerated focus on reimbursement as a part of receiving healthcare benefits. The evidence suggests that when Medicare insurance involved, the doctors and the patients often tend to think about the way in which their cooperation will be reimbursed in the future rather than trying to solve the problem (Batsis, Huyck, & Bartels, 2015). Clearly, this leads to a reduction of effectiveness of work of the doctors and the quality of healthcare services for the patient.
It has been mentioned that other than the challenges that were mentioned above, there are many that can be identified. So, it would be logical to explain why these three were chosen. First of all, the first challenge regarding proving one’s financial status often makes a person face a dilemma: accept that higher-paying job and loose Medicare coverage or refrain from any changes to keep Medicare insurance. Clearly, this is not the right kind of choice that a person should make.Medicare Challenges Discussion Paper
The second challenge was chosen in order to show that the limitation of the available options often leads to the limitation of the intervention. As a result, a person may not get the right kind of medical attention that is needed in a particular situation. This undermines the whole idea of the healthcare system.Finally, the third challenge was chosen because it shows that the financial aspect of the problem is taken into consideration more than any other aspect. It is true that this was not the case when the program had been designed. However, the reality shows that the desire to ensure reimbursement makes a person choose options that are less effective. So, this decreases the quality of healthcare altogether.
Having examined all the challenges that were mentioned before, it is clear that they have to be dealt with properly. There is no doubt in the fact that they cannot be changed until the entire system is changed. However, it is still possible to make some adjustments to make sure that the people do not have to make a difficult choice between saving their health and saving their wallet. Reasonable changes might be introduced to improve the situation.Medicare Challenges Discussion Paper