Health is an important factor in the life expectancy of individuals that constitute the working group of any nation. Improved health services increase life expectancy hence the need to protect the health of individuals at all cost in order to ensure their productivity. Health insurance increases the cost of health care by promoting demand. Insurance enables individuals to buy more health care services than they could if they had only ready cash or its equivalent. Despite the importance of health insurance, a large number of Americans lack coverage. Majority of Americans have the health insurance through their own, their spouse or as a result of inheritance from the parent’s employment. Thus, directly purchased insurance has a smaller share of the market and as such, Medicare beneficiaries cover direct coverage to supplement their Medicare coverage (Dwight, 2006).
Of the uninsured groups, the non citizens of the country seem to be the most uninsured individuals. This is because of the fact that majority of the non citizens are either poor or barely making it to the comfort zone. Majority of these people are low income earners who is either working and if they do, they are not likely to work full time. Besides, not all low income individuals are eligible to for Medicaid that is mainly based on the combination of income and population category. Often, those groups that qualify for the Medicaid are the children, parents of dependent children, pregnant women, disabled and the elderly (Davis, 2008).
The incomes levels at which these groups do qualify also do vary from one state to another and from group to group with the children and pregnant women being eligible at higher income levels. Childless adults who are not disabled or are not elderly barely qualify for the Medicaid even at the lowest income levels. Therefore, considering this trend, I think the U.S should acknowledge the contribution if these otherwise non citizens in the country and either initiate a program that would cover up their law wages or provide some form of health care reforms to allow for their low economic status in the society.
Just as it goes the say, cheap is expensive, it is believed that those with Medicaid benefits receive care that is inferior to that who have been privately insured. One tormenting issue in almost all the Medicaid situations are the long queues as people waits to be attended to, a situation that is barely witnessed in the privately insured circumstances. This is a peace of mind to the privately insured people as they are ensured that their treatments are always as quick as they could be as such they are not concerned about the long queues in the hospitals. Likewise, those in the privately insured have the option of making a choice of what type of consultant to choose and where they love to be treated as they are not restricted to a specific medical officer or hospital. In addition, the issue of privacy is guaranteed as they don’t need to be worried about mixed gender and they have specific specialists assigned to them to address a specific problem (Bebchuk & Fred, 2004).
There is a notion that the Medicare taxation of individuals results to the transfer of wealth from the younger to the older individuals. This is because, at certain age, the older population stops paying for their medical insurance and depend on the age benefits that health insurance is one of the entitlements. This therefore results to the transfer of wealth as the elder people do very little to pay for their care while the young energetic people who enslave working are forced by the law to pay for the insurance covers that mainly cover majority of the aged people. I feel this is not a fair representation of the society as this form of prestige is mainly to the few fractions and not the entire population. I feel it is not viable in the long term considering the mortality rate of individuals at this rate (Dwight, 2006). Majority of the people currently de before the retirement age or the age that would enable them benefit on the health plan. Therefore, they pay for their health insurance but they barely enjoy it.
Medicare has a great influence on the financial systems of the country. Medicare spending rises every year compared to the tax revenue due to the increasing rate of retirements and the escalating baby boom generation that is responsible to the observed trends. Likewise, the ration of the workers paying Medicare taxes has also seen a decreasing trend with a projected fall in the future. This therefore shows that Medicare has a great influence in our financial institutions and the major reforms made in the financial institutions are often done as a reflection of the stress resulting from the Medicare requirements. This is also shown by the gap between the projected spending and the dedicated revenues that never balance up. Thus the Medicare problem cannot be solved by borrowing money but rather obliges the future generation to pay higher through taxes to ensure that the Medicare requirements are met. This shows how Medicare has a great influence on the financial institutions.
Works cited
Lucian Bebchuk & Jesse Fred (2004), Pay Without Performance, the unfulfilled Promises of Executive Compensation. Harvard University Press.
Michael L. Davis (2008). Executive Compensation: The professional’s Guide to current issues and practices.
Perkins, H. Dwight, (2006), Economics of Development. Norton and Company, New York.
