Response to Shonna Andrews
******* please respond to the discussion below add citations and references 🙂 *********
Healthcare systems were designed for the average person to live between 65-70 years, so retirement age at 65 meant that the lifetime earnings and savings were sufficient. Now, the retirement age remains 65, but the life expectancy has increased to far above 80, therefore the lifetime earnings and savings does not have the volume in the account for the extra 15 plus years of life after retirement, therefore, those years, in which the person incurs health costs without producing income as “insurance”. People of today, must finance the health needs of today’s children, their grandchildren, and 3rd and 4th generations to come. The labor contributions that were legislated thirty years ago were clearly not enough for today and contributions for thirty years from now would make labor too expensive. Health financing may also determine how pressures on health systems are weathered without loss of equity, quality and financial protection. Social Health Insurance has been found to have negative labor market effects and to hurt competitiveness due to higher labor costs (Goranitis & Liaropoulos, 2015).
I see so many people each day that have put in many years of hard work and have nothing to show for it after all of these years. They receive a small check each month and it barely covers their rent, utilities, and prescriptions. Unless a patient requires a skilled need, they are unable to be placed into a facility and it be paid by insurance, unless they qualify for Medicaid. I have worked with Case Management for many patients, only to find out that they do not qualify for Medicaid because they worked their entire life and have a small income each month. It doesn’t matter that it only covers their small rent, their utilities, and their medicines with no money left over and that they need someone to look after them. These individuals need placement, but are denied due to the insurance type. I would like to see more of our geriatric population be able to meet the criteria for Medicaid secondary insurance. The geriatric population who have worked their entire lives, putting money into this lifetime earnings and savings, but outlived the average of 65-70 years that was designed before the 1950’s. This reform would prevent re-hospitalizations of our geriatric population and would increase the comfort for their end of life.
Tax payers are already paying for individuals to have Medicaid. I believe that we should encourage the younger generation who are actually able to go out and get a job and encourage them to deposit into their own lifetime earnings and savings plan. I believe that with an increase in drug screenings for welfare benefits and Medicaid in the younger generation, revoking the ones who did not pass, we would be able to pass these benefits to the Geriatric population who has worked their entire life and take care of them for a change (NCSL, 2017).
Sources
Goranitis, I., & Liaropoulos, L. (2015, September 15). Health care financing and the sustainability of health systems. Retrieved from NCBI: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC45707…
NCSL. (2017, March 24). DRUG TESTING FOR WELFARE RECIPIENTS AND PUBLIC ASSISTANCE. Retrieved from National Conference of State Legislatures: http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/drug-t…
