Health Insurance Articles

Expanded Medicare Would Come At A Price

2009-12-27

You have probably heard quite a bit about the health care changes that are being discussed. In particular, the talk about expanding the Medicare system has caught the attention of many people. While there are many people who believe that this will be a good thing, it is important to note that the expanded Medicare would come at a price.

Of course, there is always a price to pay when expanding a system. Currently, seniors who are on Medicare health insurance pay, on average, approximately $4,400 per year out of pocket. This is for things like supplemental insurance, prescription co-pays, premiums and even the deductibles for doctor visits and inpatient care. What is particularly amazing is that that $4,400 comes after considering the money taxpayers put in towards covering the elderly through Medicare.

One of the plans for extending Medicare health insurance coverage is to bring in people from ages 55 to 64. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as one might hope. Because of the high costs required, one Democratic scenario involves having those people ages 55 to 64 buy their way into Medicare full freight. In cases like this, private insurance would likely become the better option, thereby defeating the purpose of extending Medicare. Without bringing in people in their 50s, premiums for buying into Medicare are expected to be extremely high, with some projections showing it to be as high as $630 per month. What is worse is that these enrollments are projected to be limited to perhaps a few hundred thousand people. However, with the Democrats' plan of expanding the Medicare to cover those people ages 55 to 64, it is expected that premiums will potentially be lower, as well as having a higher enrollment.

Though expanded Medicare would come at a price, it still stands to reason that it could do quite a bit of good. The primary aim of the expanded Medicare is to provide help to those who stand the risk of being the most in need. In this bad economy, men and women in their older working years are the more likely to lose their private insurance. With the legislation as it is, uninsured Americans would have to wait as many as three or four years before the major federal aid begins to flow to help the uninsured. By expanding Medicare, this problematic gap in insurance can be rectified.

In addition to trying to expand the Medicare in order to cover this potential gap in insurance coverage, Democrats are also looking towards attempting to make this Medicare option permanently available.

The only thing that you can be sure of is that expanded Medicare would come at a price - potentially, a necessary price to pay.