The president stated on August 1, Saturday that all Americans deserve a health care system that is effective and excellent. Here in Region 10, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, there are over 3 million Medicaid/CHIP enrollees and nearly 2 million Medicare enrollees, covering almost 39 percent of our population’s healthcare needs. That number will grow, as half of newly enrolled Medicare beneficiaries are choosing Medicare Advantage.
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Medicaid is driving innovation as well. The majority of adults with Medicaid are employed and pay taxes, but work in low-wage jobs for small firms or service industries that typically don’t offer health insurance. A quarter of seniors were estimated to have gone without care because of concerns about medical costs. After a slowdown this decade, spending is expected to accelerate through 2024, when spending is projected to reach $866 billion.
Medicare and Medicaid were signature health care and anti-poverty achievements that we must work everyday to protect and strengthen.
The private option has reduced the number of Arkansas’ uninsured. But some legislators oppose it as an expansion of government with unsustainable future costs. Through federal waivers, states can experiment with new approaches that often lead to changes adopted by the entire country.
Now, thanks to Medicare, 54 million seniors and people with disabilities have access to guaranteed healthcare benefits.
There have been other indicators of an increase in healthcare spending.
Over a third of African Americans who would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid reside in states that have refused to expand the program.
To celebrate the occasion, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had an event at Florida global University to reflect on the impact of the programs during the past half century, as well as look forward at how they can keep expanding and improving. All analysts have accepted the fact of Medicare’s great impact, but very few have bothered to delve into the details of that impact. The nation’s expenditures for healthcare will comprise 20 percent of the entire nation’s gross domestic product by 2024. However, another scenario places Medicare at 9% of GDP by then.
For most of the last 50 years, Medicare has paid providers on a fee-for-service basis, which means doctors and hospitals were paid each time a patient went to see them for any reason.
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The passage of Medicare brought the desegregation of southern hospitals. Unfortunately, our friends in Washington failed to collect enough revenue to cover that amount.
