The Affordability and Financial Sustainability of Medicare

Medicare Eligibility and Financing Post
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Medicare Eligibility and Financing Post
Medicare program beneficiaries include persons aged 65 and above, persons below 65 with specified disabilities, and individuals of all ages with kidney failure [patients surviving on dialysis or in urgent need for a kidney transplant] (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2019). However, Medicare is not reasonably affordable for all its beneficiaries because over half of the individuals on the program earned below $262,200 per individual, and their savings were below $74,450 (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2019), implying that they could not afford monthly premiums for health insurance. In this way, a significant portion of the program beneficiaries cannot access and afford quality health services, including outpatient and inpatient hospital care, prescription medications, and physician services.
The rising out-of-pocket spending makes the program unsustainable for future generations, coupled with the shrinking taxpayer numbers and retirement of baby boomers. Out-of-pocket spending increases with age among the program beneficiaries aged 65 and above and is relatively higher for women than men (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2019). Taking non-premium and premium costs into account, a...